Planning your winter garden

August 1st marks the halfway point of the garden between the last and first frost dates at my location, and also marks the beginning of the winter growing season!

It wasn't until I read The Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman that I even realized a winter garden is possible. That dude lives in Vermont. I live in Northern California. It should be illegal for me to NOT grow a winter garden.

One of the tools I've been using over the last few months is GrowVeg.com's Garden Planning Tool. I'm not usually one to pay for things, and at $25 per year (or $40 for two years), I was a little put off on the tool because of the price. I used it during a free 30 day trial and was then contacted by GrowVeg to review it, and they kindly gave me a free year (score!). The proof is in the pudding - I will be renewing my subscription when it comes up next year - I really like this tool.

Click for a quick video of the tool in action













This picture/video represents my raised beds garden, which is the most intensively gardened area on my property. Because of this, it is important to practice crop rotation. One of my favorite features of GrowVeg's tool is when I click on a plant that I want to put on the graph, it will show me where I planted something in that same family depending on how many years are to have elapsed before planting it again. The video shows me selecting beets, and where something in the same family was planted the season previous. It also shows me deleting a tomato, indicating how easy it is to maneuver within the program. The learning curve is nothin'.

Cool, huh?

I find myself coming back to this tool with each planting season, and recommend you check out their 30 day free trial if you're interested. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with how helpful it is!