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!
Aug 1, 2009
Planning your winter garden
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6 comments:
I've heard of that GrowVeg before- I'll have to give it a try as I do this on paper. Coupled with GardenTracker (www.gardentracker.com) I may just have a sweet set up on my computer. I know what you mean about Eliot Coleman's book. After reading it a few years later I called him because I had questions about Nitrogen buildup in winter grown lettuce, etc. really nice guy. You should read his new book- grabbed my highlighter right away!
I'll give it a shot, since I was (and still am) battling late blight!
Wow!! I'm trying the 30 day trial.
I can't tell you how often I put together a crudely drawn sketch of what is where in my garden.
I end up forgetting to keep notes on it, etc.
Thank so much for passing this along!
Heh... I'm laughing at your mention of Coleman's book. I passed that book by maybe a dozen teams at the bookstore, each time thinking, "Sure, a 4 season harvest... where? Florida?" And then I found out he lived in New England, and was very, very ashamed at my small thinking!
Does it work for a ready fire aim kind of gardner?
I had a GrowVeg account before and have to say that it's still pretty limited in its uses as far as our urban farming project goes. We use a lot of biointensive planting and vertical gardening (which growveg doesn't account for. Still, if one was to use traditional planting methods for their garden, GrowVeg does make it easy to keep a record of what's going on out there.
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