Keeping records

General tips / questions on seeding & planting

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Daveswife
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For several years we have kept a gardening diary, recording sowing dates, progress, dates for potting-on, planting out, harvesting etc and the important bit, yield.

As an example, we know exactly the dates when we have been sowing the runner beans and the sweetcorn seeds, when we first cut the lawns and so on and are not tempted to try and get things started too early. Notes about length of germination have already told us that last year's sweetcorn seeds germinated in 5 days but this year's have shown no sign of life in 15 days so must be duff and we need to buy some more! Yield tells us which varieties did best (St George runner beans, for example). Comparison of germination rates shows that tomato germination is as poor this year as last and that there is a seed and plug plant supplier we probably won't be going back to another year!

All this information has been invaluable and we would encourage everyone to keep a gardening diary. It might seem a bit tedious at the end of a day writing down everything you have done when all you need is a sit down and a cuppa!
Angie
Oakridge
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I do keep rainfall and temperature records but not crop records. I really know that I should ... but. I feel a mid-year resolution coming on.
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Geoff
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Got to agree - the oldest I could find - should that be 40th Anniversary?

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Primrose
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I keep a primitive sowing diary on my Outlook comouter diary by entering the date I sowed certain seeds and getting the date recur on the same date annually so i have a rough guide. I've noted that against my tomato aeeds on several yeats I've gone back in and retrospectively commented "too early!" Some lessons are never learned!
Keepng rcords of beat performing varieties always a good idea. I've often cursed after having thown an emoty seed packet away and rhen find I can't remember the variety or the seed supplier.
PLUMPUDDING
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I've been keeping a gardening log in various guises since I started growing in my own garden when the children were small in 1975. That was a bit basic as I hadn't always got time to complete it. The second one was more comprehensive and listed the varieties of fruit trees and where they were in the garden. I also record sowing planting and yields, and have a list of the seeds I ordered each year and a summary of the best tasting ones etc.

A very useful one is to note when it is frosty, but it doesn't stop you getting caught out by a surprise late one. It does make you think twice about sowing and planting too early.

I'm on my third diary now, and can add a folder of the weather conditions in the back as a monthly summary of rainfall, temperature, wind speeds sun, etc thanks to my son installing a weather station in the garden and doing a print out for me.

Another useful thing to have is a plan of the garden with the measurement of all the beds so it is easy to see what size crop protection you need. I've been changing mine round and installing new paths so am in the process of measuring it all up again.
Monika
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I have now kept a diary of daily happenings for almost 40 years, at first just in two successive 5-year diaries but since then in a page-a-day book with weather readings and all the gardening and wildlife events of the day. One thing I have never recorded is the yield - I know some of you do.
Occasionally I pull out a book of a few years ago and wonder how different the weather might have been or how I could be sowing/plantings at that time of the year!
And for me the most interesting thing is, nothing to do with gardening, what I wrote on the day of the births of our nine grandchildren and the one greatgrandchild.
PLUMPUDDING
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It is also useful to have a page to jot down plans and ideas for next year. It is so easy to have an idea for an improvement, and forget what it was if you don't make a note at the time. And I make a note of seeds that I like that have been used up so I can order more next year.
Westi
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I really know I should and it would benefit me greatly in future years but I start but don't continue for much longer than a month. I have kept the few books I have started & laugh out loud at the bizarre things I thought were note worthy - I have better records of the Adder than I do of the crops! :oops:

Westi
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robo
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I used to do it for my fishing which is harder than you think , trying to write on a boat that is being tossed about like a cork takes some doing it came to an end when I found pages had been ripped out but it was very usefull from one year to the next, never bothered with the plot probably to many disappointments when enough things don't go as planned of imagined
Oakridge
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I have started a book! And have written down that I have sown basil, coriander a leaf beet in a plastic trough. So here we go.
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