In my spare time away from shovelling large amounts of wood chip, I created a garden plan just for the Galaxy Garden. I’m still really struggling with how to communicate this in a way that will be straightforward, so please bear with me. I’ve started writing a document to describe how I created it. Hopefully I’ll be able to put it on the website and put a link to it if anyone is keen to check it out.
In short, the garden plan is a list of all the veggies I want to grow, and ballpark idea of when to sow, the method of sowing, which bed to put them in, and when to harvest. Exactly like my whole garden design it is just a starting point. As time marches on I will be adjusting sowing times more accurately to what actually works in my garden, rather than what it says on the seed packet. The plan is a living document that will be constantly updated. I’m actually quite excited to see how it unfolds through the year.
My plan involves sowing small amounts of seed regularly, every fortnight. I feel the need to make it a constant part of my life so that I don’t drop the ball. In the past I’ve been very slack on sowing seed and I’m overcompensating to make sure my habits change!!
I’ve made the plan a rolling idea of what should be in the beds fortnight by fortnight. Right now, with me just starting out there is hardly anything planted, but over the next couple of months it will all fill out if I keep on track with seed sowing and transplanting. Planting three beds full of potatoes two weeks ago – before I made the plan – was a bit of a rash decision, but I’m leaving them there and after they are harvested I’ll follow the plan.
I’ve added a couple of pictures to give you an idea of what the plan looks like.
- The Fortnightly Sowing Record and Garden Map. Each fortnight I’m recording the seeds I’m planting in trays or direct in the garden, and then annotating the map to show what is on the ground. I add the harvesting date to this map because it is easy to keep track of what I should be seeing for dinner shortly.
- The Seed Sowing Calendar is an easy way to see which crops I should be sowing each fortnight. Just click on the vertical column for the date to highlight the crops that need sowing. This is also a good way to keep tabs on what seeds you will need in the near future.
- The Garden Plan spreadsheet is rather large so I’ve taken a snippet showing part of Mercury & Venus. This is the detail on how often crops should be planted direct, transplanted and harvested in each bed. Each bed may have more than one crop to try and get diversity, higher overall yield and cover the soil.
- The Map of the Garden Plan for July is the Garden Plan in visual form. Next July the place should be pumping.
Right now, the seeds I planted two weeks ago are looking great. Most of them have their set of first leaves, need to wait for them to produce two true leaves and then they can be transplanted.
Also the onions I sowed are sprouting too. Never had much success with onions, so this will be interesting.
And in the garden beds themselves, still no sign of potatoes but the peas are just out of the ground. Onward and upward!
