I have always made notes about my garden. I make notes about when I plant seeds, what I have planted, how long they take to germinate, when I pot them on, when I plant them out etc. As well as making notes I keep any articles which I find interesting, or ones which I think I may want to refer back to at a later date. These are tucked inside my note book. This year I bought myself a second book to keep my garden and allotment notes seperate. The notes I have made this year will help me to plan for next year. I noticed that my allotment neighbour had alot of his plants out on the allotment alot sooner than I did, and he had a great harvest. As I didn't get my allotment until March I obviously was a little late in sowing things which could have been sown earlier, but my notes will help me plan the earlier sowings next year.We spent part of Saturday at the allotment. I pulled up the courgette plant which has now given up the ghost, and picked more French and runner beans. There are still flowers on both of the beans but now that the weather has cooled down I don't think they will last much longer.
I enlisted my hubby's help to dig, whilst I dug out some of the more thuggish weeds from the top part of the plot. This is the part which hasn't yet been touched, but I'm hoping to get the whole of the allotment dug over before winter sets in so that the whole of it can be used next year. There's still alot to do, and now that the darker nights are here we don't have as much time to spend there as we did in summer. I'm hoping that the weather holds out a little longer as it will be tough going once the frosts are here.
I hope the weather holds out for you and you get it done before the cold weather sets in.
ReplyDeleteYou put me to shame Jo, with your wonderful note-keeping! I was given a lovely gardening diary last Christmas; beautifully bound with lots of little pockets and compartments and I STILL haven't used it! My allotment-pal keeps a diary so I very naughtily relied on her notes! However, this will be a resolution for 2010 - I may just get more success then!
ReplyDeleteHope the weather stays fine this weekend for you.
Jeanne x
I'm like you Jo, a prolific note taker. At the moment I just use an A4 spiral lined note book but I think I might put a 'proper' gardener's record book on my xmas list this year. What new things will you be growing on the lottie next year?
ReplyDeleteG x
Paperchase ? A different cover now but they are excellent little books and aren't those pouches great ? Could do with less of the graph paper though and more regular entries from me :)
ReplyDeleteStill not finished, Tanya, but we're getting there. The weather seems to be holding up for me at the moment.
ReplyDeleteNote keeping is really helpful, Jeanne. Still, I suppose if you have someone else's notes to rely on, then it works just the same.
The notebooks from Paperchase are really good, Georgie. Both of mine are from there, but the 'proper' gardener's one has pockets in it, which are really useful for holding clippings, seed packets etc. As for new things I will be growing on the allotment next year, I'm going to have a go at some different types of squash. Apart from that, I'm trying different types of the staples to find out which I like best. I've got some new beans to try including purple and yellow podded varieties.
Yes Anna, Paperchase. The pocketed book is really handy, but because of the amount of graph paper in there I opted for a regular notebook when I bought a second one for the allotment.
Jo you put me to shame ! I have the RHS allotment notebook and a garden notebook and haven't used either. I must make a point of using both next year. By the way what French bean seeds did you sow ? as I am impressed that you still have them growing, mine were an earlier variety called 'Fasold' delicious but finished ages ago.
ReplyDeleteI had two varieties of French beans, Maureen. I had a dwarf variety called Safari, but these finished quite a while ago. They were delicious though, a very thin variety, and I will definitely grow these again next year. The other variety was a climbing bean called Blue Lake. I didn't like them as much as the Safari, but they have been very productive.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your digging resolution. We still have a bit of our plot to reclaim, and for the past few years it's been our winter resolution. Not sure we'll get to it this year! But I hope you make progress.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Linda. I don't think it's going to get done before winter now, but hopefully we'll get there before the growing season starts next year.
ReplyDelete