How do you record your vegetable planting and progress etc

[Thelma Sanders]

The plan is on excel, and so is my diary..........................but like my bank/budget spreadsheet....
I forget to put stuff on it, and end up with less money in the bank than I thought, and more plants than I have room for on the plot

[VirginVegGrower]

I use Monty Don Fork to Fork journal which was a birthday present and that records my general year at the allotment. I have a Paperchase brown paper journal which has writing paper for jottings of an as they happen nature - I date everything. It has squared paper for lottie planning and other drawings. Plain paper is where I stick my post it labels of what I am sowing in each family and by lunar method or not. The latter is my movement section - constantly changing/evolving. It also has clear wallets for my current month's seed sowing to help get me prepped. I have started a new blog and I use this fabby forum too on the lunar and what I did today threads, which you can then blog to. Either way I have a record somewhere - just not always together

[SarzWix]

Seriously though, I just sit with the seed box and sort it into months, with a subdivision for whether they need heat (propagator) or not, and each packet I look at, I think 'Yep, you did well last year, I'll grow you again', or 'You were a bit pants, lets find a better variety' and chuck it on a pile. Then I go through the 'replace' pile and order alternatives. Then, when it's sowing time, I think which bed they're going in, guesstimate how many plants I'll need to fill the space, and sow that many seeds, rounding it up to nearest multiple of cells in my cell trays. Then they grow, I plant them out, and hope that they do as well as/better than the year before. Then we eat the stuff, and if whatever it is turns out to be pants in terms of flavour, or growth/yield, it gets thrown on the 'pants' pile the next year

[Two_Sheds]

Garden Days Organiser diary by Judith Glover

The calendar? It's in stock on amazon: Garden Days by Judith Glover Monthly & Weekly 2012 Family Organiser: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home

[Bren In Pots]

I got this one:

RHS Allotment Journal: The Expert Guide to a Productive Plot:Amazon:Books

My lovely aunty got it from them book people. Haven't used it properly yet. But me being pedantic, I will!

I've got that as well it came in my MOM package it's nice to read but far too pretty to use so I'll be sticking to my ring binder with its assorted bits of paper and scribblings.

[perkin]

I was given a veg gardeners diary last year and used that to record dates of sowing, germination, first and last harvest. I also create a little planting diagram of my raised beds, filling in what grows in each one summer and winter each year. This helps me with planning some kind of rotation around the beds each year.

[Currysniffa]

I tend to do a spreadsheet of when I'm to sow all the seeds I have but after that I just wing it!

[Ananke]

Every year I plan on keeping track of things and never do. The following year I always kick myself for not doing it.

This year I'm trying a blog, see how that goes.

[binley100]

I always start off with good intentions reording everything then it gets to april/may time and the good intentions sprout wings and fly off into the distance.........this year tho'

[veggiechicken]

Every year I try something different but can't quite find a system that works for me - and I have no reason to doubt that this year will be any different. Like so many of us, I lose the incentive to record everything come the spring!
I usually write in my diary what I've sown or done in the garden - but rarely follow that up with whether it was worthwhile or not - 'cos I forget. This year it will be a diary record of actions and a little notebook with a page devoted to each seed sown, dates and a verdict. I don't have an allotment so don't have a plan with rotation etc, since my stuff has to be squeezed wherever there's room.
I may also, if I remember, weigh whatever I pick and cost it and record what happens to it - eat, freeze, turn into jam, swap, sell, whatever. I've done this before and it makes it all seem so much more worthwhile. I write down the recipes too if they're worth repeating.

[northepaul]

I got a gardeners journal from Paperchase in the sale (£9 down to £5) - I was given a recipe one last year and love it, so figured it would be perfect.
Its got oodles of paper - plain, lined and squared, little dividers and pockets for storing stuff too.

I would recommend any of the paperchase journals!!

[Comfreyfan]

I try a different journal/diary/spreadsheet every year (depending on what I was given for Christmas!) and always end up with scraps of paper which end abruptly after a couple of months! I do keep the ones which tell me how many plants of which sort I can fit in each different bed. This year it's 'Gardening and Planting by the Moon 2012'

[bearded bloke]

Planting dates Doh never thought of that,I just have a big brown paper bag that I put the used seed packets in with notes of position & quantity sown

[dirtgirl]

When I first started I bought a software program where I could make all the notes to my hearts content, different varieties, sowing dates, diagrams of my plot, etc and it would work out all sorts for me based on the data I put in, but it was too organised for me
So I tried a diary, but spent most of the time trying to play catch up, and then abandoned it by June.
So I bought a book of lined pages with a pretty flowery cover. Every time I sow something I write the date and how many, and I normally remember to go back and make notes on when it was planted out and how many, or first harvested. And the end of the year is a list of varieties I have saved seed from. I also try to draw a diagram of which tomatoes are planted where, and the same with squash, as I'm always losing labels through the season. That's it really, it works for me because I can record as much or little as I have time for, without having to look at empty pages to make me feel guilty for not being more organised

[Chef_uk]

I kept everything written down on a wall planner for my first year but that didn't last too long and now i can't even find it. Thank god then for the blog. Using google's own blogger software it is a breeze to set up and you'll be recording events within minutes if you want to. Uploading pictures is also a great feature as you can utilise a visual aspect of the past that the words might not show. The more you use it, the more info will be recorded for years to come.

The achieve aspect to it will mean you can click a link to posts in a certain month and that month from as many years that have past by had recordings in will be available to view. Great for comparing your own notes from year to year.