Best wishes,

Michelle (aka VP)

I linked to here from my blog today - you can now see a bit more about my system!

Hope all goes well and have a good Christmas!

I think it comes down to how much information you need. I used to record varieties right down to the bed level, like, if I did half a 50′ bed each of two varieties of spinach, that would be noted on the field map and in my notebook: date, number or rows, seeding depth. Multiply that by 120+ varieties across all crops (around 50-60 for tomatoes alone) in nearly 400 50′ beds, PLUS succession planting, PLUS all the movement from seedling to transplant, and that’s a crazy amount of notes to be taking.

I eventually realized, most of that detail doesn’t do me any good, especially with completely unpredictable weather making season-to-season comparisons seem pretty futile these days.

In next year’s System, varieties will be printed on marker stakes with planting dates and stuck in the beds as usual, and I’ll keep a reference list in case stakes get…obliterated, which happens. Beyond that, I’ll only keep a master list of the season’s varieties, and make notes on the calendars of outstanding things only, like, “July 15: ‘first toms: few Stupice’”. I use obvious abbreviations, but no formal code. On the little calendar, there’s that big yellow note space for each month, room enough to jot the variety lists in the months they’re first started. It might have: toms -> Stupice (Stu) as the abbreviation, but most varieties I won’t write much about anyhow! I’m ditching all but the essentials. Weather is important: min/max temp and sun (if not daily, at least the spikes and trends), rainfall, storms/major wind. Start and transplant dates. First and last harvest dates by crop. Notes on really good or bad performance of particular cultivars. Row cover dates, tillage, irrigation, other field action like that. At the end of the season, an overall mark beside each variety on the master list (I’ll figure that out when I get there, maybe an A-B-C grade). Simple! If something really needs more words, I’ll put it on a post-it (those nice square ones!) and stick it in the little calendar.

This whole records aspect is probably (well, no doubt!) one of the few big differences between home gardening and market gardening when you’re growing many varieties. I remember first looking at templates and outlines for “garden notes”, imagining all that wonderful information for future reference. Heh-heh. Sounded great. I have relatively such a huge amount of…data that I could drown in it if I let myself, it really can become a burden and counterproductive if taken too far. Unfortunately, I don’t (can’t?) really sketch, or maybe my system would be entirely different. ;) I do take pictures, and put ‘em on the blog, which has become part of the System too, I guess!

That’s my reasoning…as usual, we’ll see how it works out!!

My solution for the past 4 years has been to use a Week to View RHS Diary. Usually plenty of space and a nice botanical drawing to look at to boot!