Planting Plans

[Maf]

I'm curious as to how folks plans cope with successive crops.

Do you draw a start of season plan, a mid season and late season plan (or is that just too complicated ?)

Show me yours please ?

[Kristen]

That would be good. However ... not enough time

I just decide what is going in which "zone" and when it comes time to plant it I take the first free bit of ground.

I have a blank plan (to scale) which I then write on what-went-where, which I can refer back to in previous years (and in case a label gets lost etc!)

I do measure how much space a crop takes up, and note that - so I know how much space I need for Runners and such like (this helps planning but it was more to do with the Head Chef telling me that we have too much / too little of a variety, so that I can adjust the amount next year.

I have 4 raised beds, each is about 30 yards long, and that takes care of my 4-year rotation.

[queen of the cobs]

I have an excel worksheet where I have 'drawn' on my beds and I note down what I've grown and where and when I've planted it out. That way I may have a section with 2 or 3 things in it, but the dates make it clear which was planted first. I keep a new one for each year.

[piskieinboots]

I have an excel spreadsheet (thanks Hazel) and a Powerpoint drawing (thanks Snowdrop) which allows me to move stuff around easily

[devon-surfer]

HI piskieinboots

Any chance you can share your documents ? please pretty please
E-mail below if you will.

mikeelton71@aol.com

[NSB]

Could I have a look as well please

[Maf]

Let's ava look, you clever spread-sheeters

[Snadger]

I used to make planting plans all colour coded with what was following what etc...............then I decided 'sod it' I'll just use a bit of common sense and see where that takes me!
Now I spend much more time actually gardening and it's brought the excitement back into it.
The plans were a guideline.............but Mother Nature has a happy knack of putting the kybosh on rigid plans so I work with her now and not against her!

[Demeter]

This is my first year and although we had a plan, which is more or less holding together in general outline, I've learned a lot more from where the plan fell apart than from where it worked!! The trick is to put those lessons into action next year, which mightn't be so easy...

In my new lottie I have a half-baked scheme to create lots of small beds with mixed planting, for interest and to confuse predators, and do crop rotation by the seat of my pants... Read a couple of articles where people have used this approach and it really appeals to me - but I've no idea whether I can make it hang together... Year 1 will be relatively easy, Year 2 might take some ingenuity, and I reckon Year 3 is where the real test will come!