Two days ago I sat down to do a vegie patch plan after looking at Kellysveg and getting inspired to be organised. It was the biggest waste of time but did give me some ideas for the next month or two. I pulled out my books and started to make a list of the vegies due to go in during February and March. Drew up a chart, plotted how long they take to mature, when I am looking at starting to harvest, how many I should plant, when the moon will be in the right phase to plant. It was down right confusing and frustrating. It showed me that, while I love to look at the moon, I had no understanding of the phases of the moon. I was using a tiny little note pad and it was driving me nuts and then it dawned on me that I get a monthly email from Gardenate that tell me most of the information I wanted to know. So off I went to the Gardenate site and started to write out the list….doh! I then realised that I should just print it off and so, after a wasteful morning I was set to do the planting but the weather was not conducive and the moon is in the wrong phase for most of what I wanted to plant. What I can plant this week (I think) are root things so I am going to put in:
- 30 beetroot seeds
- carrots x 4 rows (the weather is cool so they may stand a chance) – I will cover them with a board until the germinate and then try to cover them on hot days.
- 4 or 5 punnets of onion seeds – I think we’d use about 400 a year.
- swedes – about 12 for soups – so will put in about 20 seeds.
- turnips – about 12 for soups – so will put in about 20 seeds.
I am hoping to get these in today but there is a lot on and I have no idea what seeds I have so who knows if it will actually get done before Monday!
To put a hole in the budget the Greenharvest and Diggers catalogues arrived yesterday too!
14 January , 2012 at 4:14 am
Hi.
I can’t believe how hard it can be to plan even my small vegetable patch, so I can’t imagine how you start planning yours. You seem to have so much space!
My trouble is that every time I settle on a plan, I remember another vegetable that i want to grow.
I hope your planning works out for you.
I just keep telling myself that if it doesn’t work this year, at least I will have learned something for next year.
15 January , 2012 at 7:10 am
I really do agree with you! Now that I have remembered that someone has already done all the work in terms of what, when and harvesting I can again concentrate on the actual “doing”!
I am very fortunate here, we have over 100 acres, but it becomes a test of managing time and not putting too much to handle into the patch as it leads to disappointment when it fails! Still haven’t got those root crops in but today is the day! I am looking forward to following your journey too.
4 February , 2012 at 3:05 pm
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