Local Harvest Gardening

Does anyone have an excel spreadsheet for month to month planting (template) they would be willing to share with the group?

I am working on one from others I have seen online but am not as strong with the excel. The formatting and layout is a bit of a challenge and I seem to spend more time fiddling around with settings then planning!

Would love to see the tools everyone is using as well to get ideas flowing. Produce as well as flower planting would be awesome!

Thanks,
Steve

Hi Steve,
I found this idea from the Better Hens and Gardens website. I took that, added some other factors, and formatted it as a table to permit sorting. For example, in the second worksheet (tab) of the attached, I have the plants sorted by the number of weeks before the spring frost date to start the seed. That way, the top rows are the ones to work on first, proceeding throughout the year.

I've left in some of my 2021 plans and notes so you can see the kinds of things I track, if that helps (mostly you can see my documented failures! ).

[Hmm -- it won't let me upload an Excel .xlsx into the forum message. I'll send you a private message to figure out how to share the file.]

I checked this one weekly to remember what to plant that week, and track what I actually planted and occasionally note if something came up. It helped me realise that my 'official' frost dates and weather are two weeks off of what is actually happening in my yard. It's not a perfect system; any system requires regular use. Re. tracking what comes in from the garden, I am more likely to track produce if I write it on a scrap of paper right by the door, but I've never figured out a way to track all harvests (how do people count the stuff they just eat directly from the garden?!).

Hope this helps.

Yes very helpful. One of the hardest things for me is keeping up with continuing to get things in the ground.Hoping this year has an improvement on this.

Steve

I have this from Lee Valley, and I think it'll become really handy as I use it more from season to season, if you're interested in a hard copy record
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/ga ... item=LA205

I wonder if Dan could provide a planting schedule template. The one used for the video about planning for year round harvest looks very useful. Does the Lee Valley book have schedules in it? I have been using a notebook for years, but need a new one. I used it to plan crop rotations in my small urban food garden, and am much encouraged to learn that I can quit with the crop rotation!

Yes, I would like the planting schedule templates used in the video as well! I can't wait to plan with them!

Hi All,

I have made up the blank 12 month sheet like what Jack was using in the Planting Schedule video.
I have converted it into a .jpg so that I can attach a file here.

If you would like the Excel file or a .pdf file for printing, please send me a private message.

This has spurred me on. Thanks! I also like the idea of making a list of the plants I want and their individual times for starting, transplanting, etc so that it is easier to fill in the chart. Now I can start filling in my information this weekend.

Thank you ChrisW

Good morning, I have included two resources here that may be of some assistance.
The first one is a blank copy of my planting schedule planning sheet. It has 21 beds, if you have less, just reduce it. I think it is set up to print on extra large paper (11x17) but you can reduce it in the page layout setting in excel.
The second document is my finished planting schedule that I worked on in color, if you are struggling with the schedule, I hope this helps a bit.
When I filled this out, I began with most of the crops that extended over long periods (potato, onion, peppers, tomato, winter carrots, winter cabbage, etc.) Once those were added to the plan, I added in the shorter season plants like corn, Beans, Peas, and shorter season carrots and beets. Then I filled the holes left in the end with lettuces, radishes, and spinach and such short season plants.

https://localharvestgardening.com/resou ... edule.xlsx
https://localharvestgardening.com/resou ... e-jack.pdf

I am in zone 5. I am only 3 years in to veggie gardening. I don’t see that I can do a large amount of succession gardening. I am surrounded by a cedar forest as well so I believe my sunlight is restricted to 6 hours a day from May to September.
Any guidance is appreciated.