January is here and professional vegetable farmers even in snow covered areas are well into planning this year’s plantings. Unfortunately for many home gardeners it will still be a few months before your local stores have product ready for you to purchase. There are ways that you can begin now and the earlier you start the easier its going to be.
Keeping A Diary Of Growing Information Is Key To Next Year’s Success
Professional farmers will often plan the next year crops as they are working on the current year. There are things like crop rotation that need to be accounted for so they need to monitor what is happening in their field so they don’t put a lot of effort into something that is going to fail. Trying to remember everything that is happening in your fields 6 or 12 months later isn’t reasonable so it is best to follow their lead and keep a diary of what is happening in your garden.
If you planted a bed of lettuce that never took and then replanted with tomatoes which were a great crop you might forget the lettuce completely and waste time doing it again. If you end up with blossom end rot or other diseases its very important to note these things so you can make decisions on different types of plants, locations and other things you need to do to ensure success.
If you don’t have a diary of last year’s gardening then try to put one together now. Just a text document to reconstruct the important things. Types Of Seed you used, Seed Vendor, Date Planted, Date of first blossom, Date of first harvest, Quality of product, Quantity of product, Any Disease Problems, Schedule of watering, Schedule of Fertilizing, Initial Soil Prep and anything else that you can remember.
Then put together something useful you can use this year. If keeping a special file or spreadsheet seems too much then do what I do and get a wall calendar and take notes on it. Just put down whatever you did today on the calendar whether its planting, weeding, harvesting or something else. Then you can reference it easy in later months or in preparation for next year.
Researching Seed Suppliers And Product To Grow
If you did have problems with some of the products you planted then you should research if there is a similar and better variety that will work for you. Things like Corn, Lettuce, Cabbage, Peppers and others come in wide varieties that are best for specific locations.
Corn for instance isn’t just regionally dependent and growing zone dependent but it is also elevation dependent. Consider the fact that Corn is actually a Hybrid Type Of Grass so there are varieties that grow very well in low elevation such as the plains states and then you have other varieties that grow well in states with higher elevations. Knowing this isn’t always something the average gardener is exposed to thats why you really should take your off months to understand that the cabbage your friend grows in Georgia isn’t going to do well in upstate Michigan or New Hampshire.
Even the plant starts that you get at the local store may have been shipped hundreds of miles and although they may do ok in your area they might not be the highest yielding or best quality to choose.
Order What You Can Now
Even though you might not be able to get everything you need today you should consider picking up things that you know you will need or keeping your eyes out for sales and reduced prices until you do need them.
If you know that you are going to build a hoop house green house to start the season early then you can pick up things you will need and store them. Plastic, Pipe wood or structural materials, if you see sales on fertilizer or other chemicals you need. Anything that you do to prepare a little at a time will make it easier.
Final Note
There is a lot of planning that goes into anything that is successful and your garden or small farm is included. Try to do things that will save you money. If you want to try growing potatoes in buckets then start collecting them. If you were disappointed with last year’s harvest then research other products you can plant. Maybe you want to try growing your own starts from seed and you know you will need heat mats and grow lights in a few weeks so start looking for sales and setup a place in your home to grow your starts.
The main thing is there is always something you can get done today so do it.