I would happily swap seed sowing, which I love, with pricking out, which I loathe! I find the calendar interesting as that's how I keep track of my sowing, using Google calendar rather than Airtable. I shall read/watch your "Organised" essay later, this is easily the thing I most struggle with - so easily distracted!
That's interesting, I don't mind pricking out because it feels like progress to me and I'm a progress junkie. You can try this link if you want https://airtable.com/appZUuG0p5vkxzPmp/shrsjhgW7QS35AB2f/iCal?timeZone=Europe%2FLondon&userLocale=en-gb it will allow you to add my calendar to your gmail calendar (bottom left "other calendars" then "from URL" ) you can pick a colour and choose to display it or not or just delete it. Let me how you get on with the organising essay : All the best - Steve
There's probably very few people in the world more easily distracted than I was, I usually had at least two people at work focused on trying to keep me organised : All the best - Steve
It definitely works, but the trick is figuring out which 20% of an activity, actually delivers 80% of the benefit, because even in a gardening context it's not the same for different gardeners, with different objectives and growing conditions. Most striking for me is the difference between my 20% and Charles Dowding's 20%, because he's a master at 80/20 gardening, but his conditions and objectives are radically different to mine : All the best - Steve
The calendar is great. As is the rest of the post but this is something I love. I run my own business and single parent, so I need to be organised to progress my passion for growing my own food. This on the wall will definitely help. I don't have grow lights so am focusing on growing winter mushrooms- brilliant crop of shitake and oysters on the way. Superb. If anyone is interested in mushrooms my tip is not to buy the pre-packaged over priced kits, go to a serious mushroom site- they are all mushroom geeks and will sell you stuff that really works with lots of help to get going.
Debbie loves mushrooms, but we don't really have any spare space in the house for them. Load growing in the wood chip paths though! : All the best - Steve
Can you recommend a site for mushrooms please? My garden is shaded and would be a great place for mushrooms. Plenty of inedible ones growing freely in there so I thought I may as well utilise my shaded space. Or do you need to grow them in the house?
The trestle table looks great! Very versatile. I like the idea of the google calendar entries - I think that will be very helpful. At the moment I constantly refer to your sowing log so that would cut out a few steps. I have just finished sowing my lettuces and spinach with previous ones now all planted out in polytunnel and beds. About to use my new growlight for first time having got it all set up now! I have two 40 cell trays ready to use the lights over once seeds have germinated. Any suggestions how high above the trays I should set the lights at? (Not enclosed, trays are on an open table)
I just had an idea of what could be very helpful to me in the individual growing guide. Would you consider entering examples of the dates you actually sowed, planted and harvested (and for how long) on a calendar timeline (like on the back of seed packets) rather that just the range they could be as of course that could be all different ranges of time over the year?
I wonder what stage the plants are at when you start and stop harvesting? I know it has come up in videos but a flash back and timeline for a specific bed would be really interesting. It may well take up too much of your time and what you already do is great, but just thought I'd pass on my ideas, Thanks Sreve, Justine
I really dislike those little timeline charts on the back of seed packets, because they tell you basically nothing about how long a specific sowing will take, to plant or harvest as it varies so much depending on the time of year and whether you can cover them. If you do anything slightly out of the ordinary like over-wintering or growing with lights they are hopeless. By the end of next year though I will have gathered the data needed for each succession (first early, second early etc) showing everything you are asking for. As you say though, it's a lot of work to keep track of all of this and only made possible by subscribers to my newsletter : All the best - Steve
I agree, I ignore those timelines on seed packets and just follow your lead. Having specific data showing actual results from sowing at a particular time will be really useful. I'm excited to hear you are gathering data. I really appreciate the work that will go in to documenting it all and will look forward to seeing the results next year or whenever you manage to obtain the results. I am so happy to be contributing towards some kind of reward for your hard work, being a subscriber. Thanks Steve, Justine
You are right, it does show what I was asking for! For some reason I thought it just had the harvest column with the seasons, not realising it had specific start and end of harvest in the columns beyond. I have referred to that page various times when planning what to sow, but hadn't scrolled to the right on there. Thank you!
I would happily swap seed sowing, which I love, with pricking out, which I loathe! I find the calendar interesting as that's how I keep track of my sowing, using Google calendar rather than Airtable. I shall read/watch your "Organised" essay later, this is easily the thing I most struggle with - so easily distracted!
That's interesting, I don't mind pricking out because it feels like progress to me and I'm a progress junkie. You can try this link if you want https://airtable.com/appZUuG0p5vkxzPmp/shrsjhgW7QS35AB2f/iCal?timeZone=Europe%2FLondon&userLocale=en-gb it will allow you to add my calendar to your gmail calendar (bottom left "other calendars" then "from URL" ) you can pick a colour and choose to display it or not or just delete it. Let me how you get on with the organising essay : All the best - Steve
There's probably very few people in the world more easily distracted than I was, I usually had at least two people at work focused on trying to keep me organised : All the best - Steve
Thanks for another great weekend catch up. 80/20 yes, I reckon that works 👍
It definitely works, but the trick is figuring out which 20% of an activity, actually delivers 80% of the benefit, because even in a gardening context it's not the same for different gardeners, with different objectives and growing conditions. Most striking for me is the difference between my 20% and Charles Dowding's 20%, because he's a master at 80/20 gardening, but his conditions and objectives are radically different to mine : All the best - Steve
The calendar is great. As is the rest of the post but this is something I love. I run my own business and single parent, so I need to be organised to progress my passion for growing my own food. This on the wall will definitely help. I don't have grow lights so am focusing on growing winter mushrooms- brilliant crop of shitake and oysters on the way. Superb. If anyone is interested in mushrooms my tip is not to buy the pre-packaged over priced kits, go to a serious mushroom site- they are all mushroom geeks and will sell you stuff that really works with lots of help to get going.
Debbie loves mushrooms, but we don't really have any spare space in the house for them. Load growing in the wood chip paths though! : All the best - Steve
Can you recommend a site for mushrooms please? My garden is shaded and would be a great place for mushrooms. Plenty of inedible ones growing freely in there so I thought I may as well utilise my shaded space. Or do you need to grow them in the house?
Hello. I bought my supplies from
https://www.gourmetmushrooms.co.uk/shop/
They have a good range including winter growing mushrooms and are super helpful
The trestle table looks great! Very versatile. I like the idea of the google calendar entries - I think that will be very helpful. At the moment I constantly refer to your sowing log so that would cut out a few steps. I have just finished sowing my lettuces and spinach with previous ones now all planted out in polytunnel and beds. About to use my new growlight for first time having got it all set up now! I have two 40 cell trays ready to use the lights over once seeds have germinated. Any suggestions how high above the trays I should set the lights at? (Not enclosed, trays are on an open table)
I just had an idea of what could be very helpful to me in the individual growing guide. Would you consider entering examples of the dates you actually sowed, planted and harvested (and for how long) on a calendar timeline (like on the back of seed packets) rather that just the range they could be as of course that could be all different ranges of time over the year?
I wonder what stage the plants are at when you start and stop harvesting? I know it has come up in videos but a flash back and timeline for a specific bed would be really interesting. It may well take up too much of your time and what you already do is great, but just thought I'd pass on my ideas, Thanks Sreve, Justine
I really dislike those little timeline charts on the back of seed packets, because they tell you basically nothing about how long a specific sowing will take, to plant or harvest as it varies so much depending on the time of year and whether you can cover them. If you do anything slightly out of the ordinary like over-wintering or growing with lights they are hopeless. By the end of next year though I will have gathered the data needed for each succession (first early, second early etc) showing everything you are asking for. As you say though, it's a lot of work to keep track of all of this and only made possible by subscribers to my newsletter : All the best - Steve
I agree, I ignore those timelines on seed packets and just follow your lead. Having specific data showing actual results from sowing at a particular time will be really useful. I'm excited to hear you are gathering data. I really appreciate the work that will go in to documenting it all and will look forward to seeing the results next year or whenever you manage to obtain the results. I am so happy to be contributing towards some kind of reward for your hard work, being a subscriber. Thanks Steve, Justine
I'm just wondering whether you have seen this view of my data, it sort of has what you are asking for https://airtable.com/appZUuG0p5vkxzPmp/shrxYsVK76nzMD7KG
You are right, it does show what I was asking for! For some reason I thought it just had the harvest column with the seasons, not realising it had specific start and end of harvest in the columns beyond. I have referred to that page various times when planning what to sow, but hadn't scrolled to the right on there. Thank you!