veggies

[kitty&eric]

We are NEWBIES to growing veg. does anybody have a sowing plan, spreadsheet or drawing which i can use to plan out my future vegetable goldmine
Which is the best veg to grow at which time, sowing planting and harvesting

I have my fork poised awaiting your generous advice and wisdom

regards

kity&eric

YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER. BUT, A PENCIL MUST BE LEAD

[Demeter]

I think the simple answer is probably - no.

Everyone has different ideas, preferences etc, one person's masterplan is another person's pig's breakfast! I spent ages looking for the perfect sowing, growing, rotation etc recommendations and decided in the end that it is an impossible task, unfortunately that goes *especially* for us newbies. Since your choices and preferences will be unique to you, your plan must be unique to you. There are of course guides that can help - I like Allotment Gardening by Susan someone and I also go by what it says in the mags to sow or plant in the month they are published.

My planning goes something like this:

1. Ask yourself: what do you like to eat? how much space do you have? what do you like that's expensive to buy in the shops? which veg are significantly better fresh than shop-bought? what, if anything, have you grown before that you enjoyed and were successful with?

2. When you know what you think you fancy growing - find out a bit about each crop and cross out any that are not suitable e.g. take up more space than you have, aren't suitable for the kind of growing conditions you can provide, need more time than you are willing to commit (either time in the ground or your actual time caring for them) or which just seem too difficult. Maybe keep one or two "difficult" ones, for a challenge!

3. Then when you know what you want to grow, make a rough sowing / planting / rotation plan around those crops. Having said that, it strikes me anyway that no matter how carefully you plan, something happens to muck it up. The weather means things grow faster or slower than they were meant to, or seeds refuse to germinate, or you read something and get inspired to try something off-plan, or someone gives you some free seeds / plants, or you accidentally plant something in the wrong place and your whole rotation plan has to be rethought, or... Like birth plans, planting plans are made to be broken.

Hmm. I'm not sure how helpful that was!

[Mrs Jackson]

I'm not sure if this would help you, but there's a free trial on GrowVeg.com - The Smart Way To Plan Your Garden and it should help you create a planting plan. I've not played about with it yet, so not sure how good it is.

Mrs J

[pjh75]

I would go along with what Demeter said... I bought a few books and did a bit of online research (that's how I came across the vine), bought a couple of magazines - this is the only one I still get - and put a planting timetable together. I used the Growveg.com site to do a plan and away I went... haven't looked back

[Pompeylottie]

My advice is to read the books - I've got several really good ones out from my library, or put them on your Christmas list, buy the monthly magazines, read the back of the seed packets for sewing dates, ask fellow plot holders ...then do your own thing. We all tend to do things slightly different, you're bound to make some mistakes but you'll also have sucesses and can try different ways next year. That's one of the fun things of gardening - learning new ways.

[Snadger]

When I first started I used to make scale drawings of the beds in my plots, crop rotations, what were sown, when they were sown etc etc.

I found I was spending more time faffing around on paper rather than doing what I really enjoy..............getting stuck into actually DOING it!

As Demeter says, it doesn't matter how many plans you make as nature will conspire to make an *rse of it!

Now, I don't make paper plans anymore and sometimes get it wrong but I enjoy the vegetable/fruit/flower growing experience a damm site more!

As a newbie I suppose it pays to make a spreadsheet (I just made a basic excel jobbie!) but once you have the basic layout in your head just get cracking and enjoy working on the land!

If your fork is poised............just get using it!

[SlugLobber]

There's a sowing plan on this site, somewhere, so have a look at that. All plans are based on average conditions, though, so you'll get away with some late sowings, plus some early ones!

I was very organised with my introduction to growing veg. It involved going into the garden centre and clearing them out of seeds!!! Mostly worked, and I think I find it much more satisfying growing from seed, when previously I bought the plants. Only thing I bought this year were broad beans on sale. They've been crap!