Keeping a veg journal

[reetnproper]

Really sets your mind at rest. Having spotted loads of female pumpkin flowers this morning (2 of them open and hopeful ) and hardly a male in sight (and certainly not awake and open for business as it were), I did my usual panic thing.

That is to say I went into full on 'no pumpkins for the Reetlets this Halloween' (yes I KNOW how early it is in the season relatively speaking but it doesn't stop the panic ). I do it every year. So I grabbed my journal and flicked back to last year and, panic over, copious notations made 29th July last year that the first fruits were only just the size of golf balls etc (and we know how fast pumpkins swell). Phew!

Thank goodness for my veg journal. I'd definitely recommend keeping one and recording every little thing in it to ease these moments of doubt .

Reet
x

P.S. A little while ago my elderly neighbour told me that the spare Winter Squash plants that I'd planted in her garden (she loves squash) were flowering. I popped over and both flowers were male so I've 'borrowed' them, much to her amusement, and used the pollen in my pumpkins. Fingerscrossed (and note to self NOT to save seed from any resulting pumpkins )

[zazen999]

Funny you should say that - I'm planting out some squash seedlings this next 2 weeks at schools; yes I know it's the summer hols but my reasoning is that if you sow early OR late you avoid the madness of the 6 week harvest fest.

I'm also planting out armpits in the hope that they are growing roots for the first fortnight and then will flower up and produce toms late in the season. *crosses fingers and toes

[reetnproper]

I'm also planting out armpits in the hope that they are growing roots for the first fortnight and then will flower up and produce toms late in the season. *crosses fingers and toes

Lol, I planted my 'armpits' into the school veg patch 2 weeks ago and they're doing really well. Hoping will be full of nice ripe toms by the time the kids go back in September.

Reet
x

[singleseeder]

I have decided that a journal would be good to have, but haven't worked out a good system yet.

Do you simply note day by day what you do and observe? Do you have separate sections for different types of veg; legumes, brassicas, roots etc? Would a spreadsheet with columns to note the dates of germination, flowering, fruiting, harvesting along each row for every sowing etc be better?

I have a nice shiny new notebook and have sharpened my pencil, but how to start?

What do you all do?

[reetnproper]

My journal was actually a Jamie Oliver one which was already split into months.

So July, for example, now has 2009 followed by dates and notations of what was sown, potted on, flowering or cropping etc, 2010 with dates and notations etc, etc and now 2011 etc.

It just means that I can look back and see what was happening at this time in previous years and I can note significant weather events too, like the awful, hard, late frost last year (12th May off the top of my head without getting my journal out ) which did for a lot of Viners plantings and sowings as I recall (mine included) . It meant that this year I was a lot more cautious and less complacent, making sure everything was snug at night - just in case .

Reet
x

[Two_Sheds]

Do you simply note day by day what you do and observe?

I tend to keep a detailed planting list on What I Did Today (except that I list what I did in a particular week). My home diary is an old A5 one, and I note the max & min temps and the weather, along with anything noteworthy such as first tomato, first cabbage white etc

[mothhawk]

I'm not good at diary-keeping, but I've started making notes under month headings in MS Word, so while I wait for slow loading web pages, if I remember, I can flip to Word and update the notes. Come the winter when the garden is slow, I'll do some cross-referencing, indexing, and put in a TOC, ready for easy searching next year.

If I keep it up this year....

I admire anyone who has the patience and dedication to record something every day, especially remembering to note weather and temps. That's what my grandpa always did.

[salilah]

I only do the garden at weekends, so I tend just to keep listing what I'm doing by weekend - so it's not a direct comparison year on year, but I can look back at last year and see what was going on
I have a bad habit of not updating in mid-year (too much picking?) and then finding a gap!
I've also noted that my writing is getting smaller and smaller - because I'm growing more? or recording more? Don't know!
I try to record temperature and weather, but don't always. I do try to record sowing, and first harvests if I remember - it's fun looking back

I did try to record sowing etc in excel - but gave up as I can't access it down the garden, whereas the little notebook is there at hand!

S

[rustylady]

Very much the same as TwoSheds, except my diary is an old A4. Just write the entries for the current year below the ones for last year.

[zazen999]

I am able to keep it up at work; as I record it for my schools but I'm blowed if I can do it at home as I usually don't sit there afterwards and write it all down.

I annoy myself when I don't!

[horticultural_hobbit]

By nature, I make copious amounts of notes on anything that might be useful or answers to queries. I have a faux leather bound book with squared pages. Seed packets/directions are copied and then stuck in, with annotations added to it. So all the advice from the sage grapes is written in. I've haven't organised it by month yet, just by plant and crop. then of course there's the wiki.

[Jono]

That's why I started my blog, as a kind of journal. But found blogging great, as other people chip in and comment with helpful hints and stuff about what they're doing.

Journals are really useful, definitely. I keep one for fishing too (what I catch, state of tide, weather, etc).

[1066]

I also keep notes, not as detailed as others, but the main events of sowing, planting out, 1st crops, last crops, poor performers etc. I'm not good at keeping a paper diary but have created a separate diary on MS outlook Calendar. And I simply add a quick note on the relevant day. Nice and easy to go back to. Plus, if you are in geeky mode, you can convert the diary into excel......