I find it really useful to have a couple of garden planners. That way i can see at a glance, things i want to plant, when i need to either start seeds or plant outdoors as well as if i can get another crop in once the first is done. There are lots of garden planners out there. This first one is very useful if you start your own seeds. You can see by color what you want to start indoors and when. For instance, i've already started my parsley (notoriously slow to germinate) and a week later my hot peppers and eggplant, both a bit slow to germinate. On the other hand i don't want to start my tomatoes (super fast growers) till early April. By looking at my planner i can see when i should start my seeds. I can also put in when to direct seed some of my crops. I direct seed almost everything with the exception of tomatoes, eggplants, hot peppers, sweet peppers, basil, celery, a few other crops and other herbs. Everything else does just fine directly seeded in the ground. The other exception is a late crop of lettuce, kale, and others. Most lettuce will not germinate in soil temperature too warm. So i'll start some inside in late july for a fall crop.

Another good thing about this type of planner, is that you can see when things will be ready to harvest and can plan on a second crop to take it's place. I plant my peas usually in mid march. Course this year we still have almost 2' of snow on the ground so i'll be lucky if i get to plant in late march! Either way though, the peas should come out by early July and that leaves plenty of time to get another crop or even two, in. Beets, turnips, carrots, late lettuce, late kale.. they can all go in once the peas come out. I can see at a glance, where space will be available, or where it will be taken up by crops that go till frost.

This second planner is really useful for second crops. You will find all the info about how long crops take to mature on seed packets or in garden catalogs. For instance, beets and turnips take anywhere from 35-50 days to mature, that's less than 2 months. If i plant beets in spring, they'll be out by early June and I'll still have plenty of time to plant something else. By using a planner like this one, you can plot out what you want to grow and when that crop is mature, what you want to plant in it's place. That way you're not pulling your beets thinking, "what was i going to plant here?!"

We get so busy, pulling weeds, fertilizing where we need to, harvesting, etc.. That it's hard to remember what we wanted to plant where. With garden planners, you can have that info easily available and not have to stress out thinking what you missed.

Another good way to keep track of things is with a seedling and garden logs. Next post i'll talk more about them.