Saturday, October 29, 2005

Fall Mid-West Garden Planning

I was planning to get a lot of the garden cleaned up before winter this weekend but I was called in to work this weekend. So now I am planning to make up a new spreadsheet for my garden and maybe my chickens. I am thinking of ordering more chicks than usual and then raising then to almost pullet size (when they start laying) since some people want chickens but do not want to deal with the chicks. I need to determine cost to see if it will be worthwhile.

For the garden I first need to convert my wild dreams into actual bed count. For example, if I want to grow so many potatoes how many beds will I need still want to grow enough to have a market garden and for home usage so I will be able to be at home more to take care of the family instead of working in a office so much but so far it has been just a dream.
Here is the plan so far for columns in the spreadsheet. I will end up with a number of spread sheets and so far these are the beginning of my plans.

A = crop
B = unit in question
C = average yield per 30' foot row
D = quantity wanted each week
E = number of weeks of distribution
F = total yield needed
G = total beds needed to grow for season

CROP PLAN

CROP UNIT IN QUESTION YIELD PER ' 30 FEET QUANTITY WANTED PER WEEK

NUMBER OF WEEKS WANTED TOOTAL SEASON YIELD TOTAL ROWS NEEDED

TOTAL BEDS NEED

It is important to have a plan but to be flexible for weather and all of the other impoderables of being a gardener, like the rabbit? that loved my tomatoes this year. I want to have more than needed.

Once I have the crop plan set I will need to make another spreadsheet for the field plan. I will cut and paste columns A & I and create a spreadsheet to represent each field. Each row will represent a bed in a field.

A = field prep
B = planting date
C = crop
D = Variety & seed #
E = notes
F = planting dates ( I double crop some things)
G = crop

I can plan planning dates and varieties using this and rotations if needed.

Master Plan or Filed planning sechlude
Copy an paste columns A, B,C and E onto new spread sheet. You can sort this spread sheet by planning dates for planning schedule. It can be used to decide what needs to be roto-tured and what should be seeded.

Seed Order

Sort master plant and insert some more columns to make a buying plan.

I am planning to purchase a loop house and so I will new to make a spreadsheet sheet to do this especially if you want to know how many flats you will need.
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