Garden Planning Day!

Vegetable garden at Monticello

Thomas Jefferson loved gardening.  He kept detailed records, for many years, of his garden at Monticello.  In fact, you can even purchase a copy of his "Garden Book".  I read it once, years ago, and felt so inspired that I started keeping my own garden book.  It was fun to do, but as with so many things when you are raising children, it had to fall by the wayside.  Now, I draw a simple diagram of the garden each year, and  I have the one at hand from the previous year, so I can rotate crops. I do remember how the previous year's crops worked out, so that helps me plan.  For instance, last year the squash bugs decimated our pumpkins and winter squash.  I will not plant any this year, hoping things will calm down in a year or two.  I will try zucchinis, and grow more sweet potatoes to take the place of the squash and pumpkins.  Also, we grew too many potatoes, so we will cut back this year... etc.

Today was my annual "Garden Planning Day."  First, I drew out the diagram.

I know it doesn't look like much in this picture.  I didn't develop it for public view. ;)  On the top of the paper is a list of what I plan to plant, and on the bottom is the diagram.

On to the next thing, then, which is testing the seeds I have on hand.  I put dampened paper toweling on a big platter and them put out groups of the seeds I have on hand that I want to test for viability.

And I drew a map of the seeds.

Then, I put more dampened paper toweling on top of the seeds and covered it with plastic wrap.

I set it on top of the refrigerator (a nice warmish place) and will start checking it in a few days.  Doing this will determine how thickly I need to plant the seeds, and if some of them have very poor germination, I will need to buy new seeds.

Some seeds I will buy at a local nursery soon. We will also buy onion sets and seed potatoes.  I have ordered a few seeds from Victory Seeds today, and my daughter sent some open pollinated varieties for us to try.  Thank you, Lydia!

Here is the basket with the seeds that I am testing.

I am getting very anxious for gardening season to start!  I have hopes and plans!