Kia hora te manno
Kia whakapapa paumamu te moana
Kia tere te Karohirohi

May the calm be widespread
May the sea glisten like the greenstone
And may the glimmer of summer dance across your pathways

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I am ready

This year I am on top of all the plans I have for my vegetable garden.

I have made a graph of my 20 by 20 foot garden with all the raised beds, tires and other small containers drawn to scale. I then read through my Square Foot Gardening book, and flagged the pages I will be wanting to refer to, highlighting all the relevant information in neon yellow. I also took my garden calendar and filled in all the planting days of the various vegetables, for the whole season.
Whew! what an undertaking, but it is all worth the effort for a newbie veggie gardener as I am.

I took my layout to a stationary store to have it laminated, and while there, bought a couple of dry erase markers to write on my laminated layout. Having erasable markers enables me to write on the laminated page, and erase my notes if I change my mind on the location of the seeds and plants. Rather than going out to the garden when it is time for planting, and standing there trying to make up my mind where everything is to be planted, I will already have it all planned out. I will also be able to use the same layout year after year and will have a record of the vegetables, which need to be rotated to a new location the following year.


7 comments:

dinzie said...

Thats a really good idea about the laminate for your plan ... As we all know plans change a little in the making :O)

Exciting times for you - Mels book is great and proved very sucessfull on my small plot .... Except for my winter crop which I'm finding hard to find spaces for as everything is still growong so well :O)

D

Heather said...

I thought I was organized, you win for sure. Looks like a great plan. I love raised beds. Do you plant potatoes in the tires?

Jennifer AKA keewee said...

Heather, no I don't plant potatoes in the tires. I plant strawberries and this year I am using some them for tomatoes.

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

How smart!

Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog said...

Wow, I am impressed! I'll be interested to see how well it goes. Saw your other post about the birds. My birds are all telling me the same thing - spring is almost here.

tina said...

Good plan! I use a method similar to square foot gardening, the French Intensive method is what I use. So last fall at the final cleanup, I went ahead and planned out this year's veggie garden. Boy was I glad since when I planting the cool season crops-I forgot where they should go! I fortunately had them labeled so you can't beat a plan. Saves time and mind crunching as in, "Where oh where do I go?"

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

Great idea laminating your plan! I love getting new ideas. I've been interested in square foot gardening, but I don't know too much about it yet. I really enjoy your blog!