I’ve had a vegetable garden since 2009, but it’s been mostly haphazard. I kept very few notes about what worked or didn’t work, what I’ve done about pests, how many seeds I planted, etc. It turns out, those things are helpful to know. With a few notes, I can plant an appropriate amount of plants (20 squash plants is overkill for 2 people…), get ahead of pests before they cause too much destruction, and just overall have a healthier and more productive garden. So, I finally created some spreadsheets to help me stay organized!
The pages aren’t anything fancy — no special colors or graphics — but they get the job done. I created them in Google docs so that I could access them on any device with internet, and I don’t have to keep up with sheets of paper or remember where I put my garden binder (tried and failed with that).
Just click here to access them. To edit the sheets for yourself, open the link and click “File.” If you have a Google account, click “Make a Copy,” and it’ll send an editable version to your Google drive. If you don’t have a Google account, click “Download as” and “Microsoft Excel.” You probably won’t need every sheet, but I hope something in there is useful for you.
There are 15 pages in the file:
Expenses — All about your garden spending
Seed Inventory — What you have and where they came from
Observations — Appearance of pests, beneficial insects, and other observations
Soil Amendments — Location and amount of fertilizers and soil amendments
Seed Sowing Guide — Your expectations and recommendations for planting
Sowing Schedule — Date, amount, type, and description of what you’ve sown
Transplant Schedule — Sowing, planting, and harvesting your transplants
Perennials — Sprouting, blooming, and harvesting of your perennials
Yield (by variety) — Total yield of one type of plant
Yield (all plants) — Total yield of everything you grow
Weather — Frost dates, floods and droughts, unusual weather, etc.
Varieties — The varieties you’ve tried, which ones you liked, and which aren’t worth planting again
Pests and Diseases — The problems that your plants have encountered and whether or not your solutions worked
Notes — Do’s and don’ts for the next growing season
Wishlist — The things you’d still like to buy or find for your garden
Do you already keep notes about your garden and harvest? Do you prefer to type them or handwrite your notes?
