My 2011 Planner. What do you think?

Looks very smart and professional - but space for what to do looks a bit limited?

Great idea to get organised- looks good.

I'm only a Newbie but I would think that NO growing plan has to be written in stone.

Things are always going to change, due to your circumstances or weather. For instance, if you wrote: "Sunday April 10th - sow lettuce seeds" and it turns out to be chucking it down with rain & you have nowhere dry suitable to work, then it's really not going to hurt to wait a day or two, or week or two.

Also, the same goes for crops - if you change your mind about growing a crop of something & want to swap it out for something else, it's no Biggie.

Write in pencil & keep an eraser handy.

Happy growing

I think everyone should start with a plan either written or in their head. I know I did.

In the first year I grew what I liked to eat.

In the second year I grew loads of different varieties of the stuff I like eating.

Third year I added a few oddities.

Diversify and prosper is the name of the game!

A trait I inherited from my dad is the desire to make lists and plans which I do every year. I do it because it focuses the mind but inevitably the plans go to pot when reality sets in. Last year's sowing plan was screwed up by the very cold spring. As piglet6 says, nothing is set in stone.

On balance its probably a good idea to plan but always have plan B and plan C in reserve.

The pic shows the sort of thing I did a few years ago when I still grew things in straight lines! The key is not included so you'll have to guess what all the pretty colours mean

my new blog
the recycled gardener

I bought an A4 lined hard-back notebook last week (just a cheapie one), and will be using that as my "what to do, when" book.

I'll start off with 1 page for January, 1 page for February, 2 pages for March, then 1 page per week all the way through to when things begin to slow down.

I'll write Things To Do This Week on the right hand pages, and scribble notes on the left hand pages that correspond to the Things To Do on the adjoining page...if any of that makes sense.

By Autumn I expect the notebook will be a little grubby as it will be joining me in the garden so I can tick things off as I do them, & more importantly, not forget to do something whilst I've got all the stuff out of the shed!

I will have to grow in pots again this year, and I've cut out different sized circles (for the different sizes of pots!) in green paper for the veggies, and some pink paper for the fruit. The plan is that I will write the crop on them (in pencil) & move them around (on the dining table) as the space I have available in the garden, and work out what will do best where. When I'm happy with it, I'll draw a quick sketch.

I read my earlier post back & it struck me that I may have sounded like you shouldn't plan. No, you NEED to have SOME sort of plan in your head or on paper. What I was trying to say is, just 'cos you've written it down it doesn't mean you can't change your mind, & if you DO change your mind it doesn't matter a jot.

I have made a sowing plan for the coming year as I usually forget to sow something at the right time. I have done it on the compuer as it is easier to swap and change things around. It consists of each month and each month has three columns. The three columns are for earliest sowing, main sowing and last sowing. So if a packet of seed says sow from Feb to May, then in the earliest column in Feb the name of the seed will go. For March and April the name of the seed will go into the main sowing column and for May it will go into the latest sowing column. This way if I don't sow at the earliest I will at least pick up the next months and especially in May when I know that if I haven't already done so I must sow that particular seed. I know my seed sowing list is a little long but that doesn't matter on the computer as I can just run individual pages off as required.

Ian

I have raised beds at the lottie, so I made myself a master plan of the plot on acetate. Holes mark the boundery and corners of beds. I lay the acetate over a new page in my ring bound garden planner, mark through the holes and join up the dots.

I tend to do this in Spring and Autumn only, as my Summer crops get planned into my Spring page, and Winter on the Autumn one (saves me redrawing the plan 4 times a year). I mark each bed with what family it ought to have in it (ie B for Brassica) and once I've actually planted the bed, I write in the name and variety.

I like this system, as I can easily refer back to see what stage each bed is at for crop rotation, although I'm a bit ad hoc about this I'm afraid.

Plan A, Plan B, and a Plan C, jeez. Ok, I sort of have a plan A formed already but have no idea where to start on a plan B let alone a plan C. As it will be my first year growing, i too was of the mindset to start with food we like to eat. I'm really fussy but my wife and the kids will eat literally anything. My plan A is to start with the two most used foods in our house and probably everyone else's, Onions and Potatoes.

I do like that sowing plan though Gojiberry. One of the reasons I've not contemplated starting from sowing on a big scale is keeping on top of it making sure i dont miss the critical time to plant. You're system covers that aspect of planting when the weather is right. I have 30 or so packets of seeds brought for me this year covering all types and so could do the sowing plan.

time to finalise plan A Thanks a lot.

I plan everything... it's what I do as a job too .

First couple of years I planned it all out in a notebook; what I would sow when, hand-drawn plans of where everything would go, and updated it when I completed everything.

Year 3 (2010), I planned it all out in the same notebook but I also started my blog, so what I had done got updated online.

This year I am completely online... I uploaded my sowing schedule yesterday. I'm sure it will change as the season progresses, but for now it's what I plan to do.