How to keep on top of everything

[Leeds_lad]

I walk outside, take a look at stuff and decide what I could be doing.
I have a laid back lazy attitude to things so it doesn't effect me much. Some days I could go out and go "oh that needs a bit of watering, or oh I could throw some seeds/plants in that gap".

Then the rest of the time is spent drinking cider on the garden bench (not too much though ;p)

[Florence Fennel]

Keeping on top of things is just a matter of spending time each day to check things out. A little sowing, a little potting on, a little weeding, a little watering, a little mulching and hopefully later on in the season, a lot of harvest. My attitude to growing is the same as my attitude to life, relax and go with the Flo!

[Sarico]

this is my first year gyo and i just note everything down on a diary so i can plan better next years coming...i already realized what is better and when... i try different thing and products and i have already decided what i will do next year.. anyway you have to think as well that you can plan with mother nature so a lot of time you have to change the plan...

[winstonwobble]

little and often in my case very often as i love the outside and will potter all day then when my partner comes we potter somemore love it wouldnt have it any other way

[Two_Sheds]

I use my phone as my calendar, so I keep a running To Do list on it, adding & deleting jobs as I go.

April is frantic, there are never enough hours in the day, and the weather is always too cold, too hot, or too dry.
The heated props are full, the greenhouse is full, and I'm doing the hardening-off shuffle from 8am, putting everything back in the gh before dusk.
For my seeds (kept in a monthly envelopes):- I take out all of April's packets (100s of them) and lay them out on the kitchen table. As space becomes available in the props or the gh, I sow whatever seeds I feel are 'most urgent'.

Things do get missed through lack of room, but I can't do everything ~ it is just a hobby after all. This year I've planted up another 6 new beds at school, so I'm more short of time than usual. To compensate, I'm going to simplify my allotment planting: I'm going to do more of low-maintenance beans & squashes, and fewer of the fiddly things (brassicas & carrots).

Seedlings go up to the lotty after a week or two's hardening off in the back yard. We had no rain at all during April & May last year, and I lost all my parsnips to the drought and it was a real struggle trying to keep the new sowing adequately watered (established plants can be left more to their own devices).

I don't get to do my other hobbies during spring, there's too much to do in the garden, but it's worth it for June, when things start maturing and I can ease off a bit.

[di]

Being my first year of having to sacrifice three lottie work days to three paid work days, I'm seriously putting my faith in the mulch, mulch and mulch some more approach. I have friends...and even their neighbours...saving grass clippings for me. Am constantly on the lookout for cardboard and nobody is permitted to throw their newspapers out.

Also, like TS, this year I'm going to forgo some of the more fiddly things. Lots of beans, squash and potatoes.

[di]

Oh, and forbid anyone from entering my home for the next eight weeks!

[SarrissUK]

I have to admit that I feel a little frayed at the moment, but that's due to stress at work, and that my allotment is still a bramble hell and I have a lot of digging to do before I can use it all for planting.

My answer to it is to maintain my existing beds and do what I can. Full stop. I try very hard not to stress about it, because the allotment is my quiet, kid free haven

Last year I bought some plug plants to 'plug' the holes and that worked well. I won't do that this year - I have a kitchen full of seed trays and seedlings!

[shona_b]

My moto is definitely little and often so its never too daunting when you arrive on the plot - its also so nice to get out of the office and onto the plot for an hour every other weekday. I have a dedicated calendar for the plot where I have entered on each month the seeds that need to be started during the month and then when things actually go into the plot I mark those on their respective dates - that way I can easily see what's in, what's due to go in and should even know when the first and second earlies should be ready

[Madasafish]

I make no lists.

I store my seed packets sorted by date order of planting.

Review my plants weekly.

KISS>

[kentishgal]

This is my first year GYOing in my little garden so Im still at the 'listing things in a diary' phase!
I have a basic outline for April to work through and will be making note of when I plant things, esp for successional growing. Hopefully by the end of the year I will have a much better idea of what will grow well for me and what wont.
I imagine alot of the experienced gardeners will be doing most things by instinct and practise though!

[Alison]

I can't imagine ever not keeping garden records, helps me know what worked and what didn't. Have a large spreadsheet each year with every seed I own listed, how many to sow, where to sow and when then I fill in details of what I've done as I do it. It was a lot of work to set up the first year but a doddle now and invaluable to me although it's mainly telling me this year that I'm running late due other things getting in the way.

[taff]

I've looked through the seed box once, sorted them all [again] decided what's missing and went and bought them [swedes this year, I discovered instead of hating them, I actually quite like them now, ran out of beetroot last year too, and some more broad beans, because i forgot to send an sae to zazen two years ago ].
I've put them in order of type and I look through them once a week to see which ones need sowing. I take them to greenhouse, sow some, forget the rest, then do the same thing again the next week.
When the weather warms the soil suffuciently, I'll direct sow everything else.
As for the jobs that need doing, like tidying, organising etc, that gets done as an when, either as I have time, or when it's really urgent.
Gardening is my de-stress time so there's no point in being uptight and ffrantic about it.
If I get to the stage where I forget to do something and it's too late, thats what garden centers and plug plants are for

[salilah]

I also quite like the moon planting schedule, as it gives me a bit of a focus (I'm typically only gardening at the weekend). So - each time there is a new "type" day, I check the time of year and see if I should be sowing or not (pretty nearly everything is sown in modules to avoid getting munched when small).

I've a plan for what should go where roughly - so with this and the moon types, I just then decide which varieties I'm going to do this year (I love buying seed and have far too many varieties!). Things get sown in modules, then into either the heated prop or the greenhouse or the utility area (soon I hope into the cold frame) and watered when needed. Once they are ready to go out, they are planted out!

My "plot" is raised beds in the garden, and most have a second crop over winter, so I weed as I go, and top up with compost mixed with soil when I can. I don't dig; just use new compost/soil mix for the potato bags and for Morrisons buckets for cucumbers, melons, chillis, aubergines and topping up the tomato bed in the greenhouse after all the winter leaves have finished

It's little and often I suppose, like most other folks - and not worrying about it, as I can always catch up, and mostly the veg will grow despite my lack of attention!

[susieq100]

School holidays and weekends are my 'busy' time, when I do as much as I can (weather permitting), then the rest of the time, I just try to keep things ticking over ...watering, planting out and harvesting. If I can't get to the weeding, well ... things will be weedy. My plot isn't pretty, but it is pretty productive.