Understanding the Gardening Calendar

Understanding the gardening calendar isn't all that hard of a task. Basically it is knowing the planting times, growing seasons, and harvesting times for each of the different plants and items that you may be growing. While there is plenty of information readily available on the internet, in the local farmers almanac, and even at your local gardening store, nothing quite matches up to personal experience. This can be done by creating a journal of sorts.

• Get your tools. As with any type of task, you will need to have the right kinds of tools in order to succeed in your task. That is no different when preparing for your gardening calendar or journal. The best tool that you can use for this is a notebook, or even a formal journal. Whatever you decide on, you will want it to be relatively durable since it will be put through its paces.
• Do some basic research. When you have the journal or notebook you will be using, you can begin doing some research. This research should be about the plants that you will may be growing, the area that you live in, the soil requirements, when to plant, when to harvest, and so on. Be as detailed as possible, since you can use the information found in the journal for any and all questions that may crop up.
• Decide when you will get the plants. Based off the information that you have found, you can begin deciding on when you will be getting your plants. Keep in mind that each plant will usually be planted at different times, so write down when you should be getting (or ordering) each plant so that you can begin the planning process.
• Create a plan. Take the time to create an actual map, or plan, of your proposed garden in the journal. By creating this map you can be detailed about where you want each plant at, and whether the plants will even work together or not. In this plan you can also write out the proposed planting times, and even creating a rotation schedule for plants that you will be swapping out throughout the year.
• Track your progress. After you have finished creating your plan, go ahead and begin planting and growing your garden. Be sure that you write down and keep track of everything that you do. This will give you much needed information for later. When doing this don't overlook anything, and be sure that you actually write down every little piece of information, no matter how small it may appear at first.

Now that you have your journal ready to go, and have kept track of what you have done over the past season, you can begin planning. Use the growing times, temperatures, and even the notes of when each plant is ready for harvesting to help you over the next year. Repeat the process over the next few years, and you will have enough information to start creating an average that you can begin using for your planning. This average (for planting, growing, harvesting, etc.) you can use to make your official, personalized, gardening calendar.