Looking Pretty Organized

I just printed off a list of what is in my garden, section by section, row by row.  It is three pages long, and makes me look uber organized.  Which I find humorous, because while I always strive for organization, more often than not it eludes me.  In fact, the whole reason I made this printed list is because I can never remember just exactly what is planted where.  I can tell a tomato from a cabbage from an onion on a glance.  But remembering which type of tomato and which type of cabbage and which type of onion is a whole 'nother story.  Since I usually want to stick with the best growers from year to year, I need to remember whether it was the National Pickling cukes that produced like rabbits, or if it was the Boston Pickling ones.

So, this year while planting the nearly quarter acre that is my garden, I actually had a clipboard, paper and pencil with me.  I stopped at the end of each row and wrote down what I planted.  So organized!!

Just don't look at the tomato rows, where it says "2 ?? tomatoes, 6 ?? tomatoes, 4 Mortgage Lifter tomato". . . Those ?? aren't I don't know how many I planted.  No, they are I planted six tomatoes of all one type but forgot to write on the container which seeds I put in it!!  Again, organization eludes me.

But, just to look impressive, here are my three pages of garden rows.

2013 Garden

NE Section

1.  red potatoes from cellar

2.  red potatoes from cellar

3.  red potatoes from cellar

4. Yukon Gold potatoes (from FF&H)

5. Early Wonder beet

6. Detroit Dark Red beet

7. Catskill Brussels sprouts (seedlings from house, replant from seed 6/10)

8. Calabrese broccoli (seedlings from house)

9.Waltham broccoli (seedlings from house)

10.   Copenhagen Cabbage (seedlings from house)

SE Section

1. Danvers carrots

2. Blueberries w/leeks between plants

3. Berlicum carrots

4. Centennial Hops

5.  Asparagus (3 E/W rows)

6. Garlic (4 E/W rows, Georgian Fire, German, Inchelium Red, Siberian )

7. 2 Gooseberry bushes

8.  Strawberries (4 E/W rows after hops)

9. Strawberries (5 E/W rows after asparagus)

10.   Snow's Pickling cukes

11.   Boston Pickling cukes

12.   National Pickling cukes

NW Section

1. Bodacious corn (planted early May, poor germination; replant most of Bodacious 6/1)

2. Bodacious corn w/ Sweet & Early cantaloupe

3. Bodacious corn w/Sweet & Early cantaloupe

4. Bodacious corn

5. Bodacious corn

6. Bodacious corn

7. Honey & Cream corn (planted mid-May, doing fine)

8. Honey & Cream corn w/KY Wonder pole bean

9. Honey & Cream corn

10.   Honey & Cream corn w/KY Wonder pole bean

11.   Honey & Cream corn

12.   Honey & Cream corn w/KY Wonder pole bean

13.   Magic Lantern pumpkin

14.   Green Arrow pea (double row) (planted mid-May)

15.   Green Arrow pea (single row)

16.   Green Arrow pea (single row)

17.   Sugar baby watermelon w/parsnips, Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon w/leeks

18.   Crimson Sweet watermelon w/spinach, Charleston Grey watermelon w/spinach

19.   squash volunteers (acorn? Long Island cheese? pumpkin? )

20.   Crimson Sweet watermelon (1 from Dad) 18 Alma Paprika peppers, 15 Pepperoncini

21.   12 Ancho peppers, 12 WI Lakes peppers, 1 Bull Nose pepper

22.   7 Glacier tomatoes, 15 Bull Nose pepper

23.   19 Glacier tomato

24.   2?? Tomato, 6 ?? Tomato, 4 Mortgage Lifter tomato, 5 Celebrity tomato, 2 Glacier tomato

25.   4?? Tomato, 4 ?? Tomato, 6 ?? Tomato, 5 ?? tomato

26.   4 sandwich type tomato, 1 ?? tomato, 14 San Marzano tomato

27.   3 Roma tomato, 15 San Marzano tomato, #9 Cherry tomato (from Dad)

28.   17 Roma tomato, #7 Cherry tomato (from Dad), #1 Cherry tomato (from Dad)

SW Section

N/S rows

1. Experimental Tri-Color bush bean

2. Experimental Tri-Color bush bean

3. Filderkraut cabbage (seedlings from house)

4. Perfection Drumhead cabbage (seedlings from house)

5. 6 Perfection Drumhead cabbage (seedlings from house), Rd Lt. Green zucchini (trail packet)

6. salad cukes (Ashley?)

7. 9 sweet potato, 4 Cauliflower, 4 Brussels sprouts (from FF&H)

8. Honey & Cream corn (planted end of May)

9. Honey & Cream corn

10.   Honey & Cream corn

11.   Honey & Cream corn

12.   Honey & Cream corn

13.   Honey & Cream corn

14.   Bodacious corn (planted 6/8)

15.   Bodacious corn

16.   Bodacious corn

17.   Bodacious corn

18.   Bodacious corn

19.   Bodacious corn w/Waltham butternut squash & Hubbard squash

20.   Green Arrow pea (planted 6/10)

21.   Green Arrow pea

22.   Filderkraut cabbage (from seed)

23.   Di Ciccio broccoli (from seed)

24.   Boston Pickling cukes (from seed)

25.   Boston pickling cukes w/ Long Island Dill

26.   Snow's Fancy pickling cukes w/Dukat dill

27.   Copenhagen cabbage (from seed)

28.   Rutabaga, kale, swiss chard

E/W rows

1. Grapes, niagara & concord

2. Spanish onion

3. Spanish onion, E 4 ft Long Day Sampler onion

4. Long Day Sampler onion

5. Copra onion

6. Artichokes, Black Beauty zucchini

7. Birdhouse gourd

8. Detroit Dark Red beet
9. Rhubarb (from Jimmy)

Looks great, right?  I can see the omissions in it--like those darn unnamed tomatoes (I seeded Rutgers, Homestead, Red Alert, and Federle and apparently forgot to mark which container was which).  I also know that it does not yet reflect exactly what is in each row, especially the tomatoes and peppers where I have filled in 'missing' plants (seedlings that did not survive transplant) with others--the cherry tomatoes "from Dad" are designated exactly how I want my records to read: which plant in the row is what kind.  I lost a bunch of my peppers to a late frost and recently filled in some of the spots with banana peppers from a fellow farmers market vendor, but have not yet notated which numbers in that particular row are actually paprikas and which are banana.  That is something for this afternoon, and, if I don't actually get to it, once the peppers are on the plants it is easy enough to tell a paprika from a banana; they are two different shapes.

Overall, though, it's a huge step up from prior gardens where I didn't write down anything, let alone which row was which.  This will help not just with knowing what I planted this year, but where in the garden it sat, so I can avoid using the same section for the same vegetables sooner than every three years.