[cammi]

Eureka!  With a google spreadsheet (much easier to use when not trying to make it do sums lol) the charts, the seed packets i look like i can make what im after.  I will still use growveg, to visualise how the crops will come and go so i can see, if theres ever a empty square i can we plant in, but I'm feeling that maybe able to be done on a spreadsheet too!

And breathe, thanks folks,  was thinking all these seeds were going to be arriving with no homes to go into.

Now to decide on SFG or SFG+traditional rotation. lol

Thanks again

[gavinjconway]

A few A4 sheets of paper, pencil, ruler and a rubber (for all your changes.)  The best and easiest way to plan the plot.

[strider84]

Excel spreadsheet for me I have my plot planned for the next four years......

Though every spring I do find myself straying somewhere from the plan!

I like to think I am spontaneous but its probably more along the lines of stupid 

[Ma Lowe]

Excel spread sheet for me too and like strider84 I have the basic plan made up for a few years ahead and just adjust as needed.
 I have somewhat fallen behind on the garden plan since having my allotment though, so something to sort on those rainy days 

[wbmkk]

Microsoft Visio is good too, if you have it. Just copy and paste in whatever you need.

Like any drawing program, it would take a bit of effort the first time, but after that ... easy.

Another free program Paint.net, available from http://www.getpaint.net/ could also be used. Again a little effort is needed setting this up.

It's actual a very powerful program, once you get to know it.

I just use a notebook too, as many others do ... it's not easy using the desktop computer on the plot .... and anyway, who want to ?

[JayG]

Any program that reckons you need no gardening knowledge because it will do all the thinking for you, is only as good as those who developed it, and even if they were truly brilliant, they can't possibly fully take into account your location, soil conditions, and the weather you will actually encounter.

I use an Excel workbook to plan my planting - the basic layout is drawn to scale by resizing the cells into squares, and all the crops are indicated by 'text boxes' (View > toolbars > drawing - select 'text box' from the toolbar.)

You can make them any size or colour you want, move them around to your heart's content, and write notes inside them.

The following year I just copy the previous worksheet and make whatever alterations I need to with minimal effort, and I still have all the previous years' plans and notes to refer to readily to hand.

[surbie100]

Excel spreadsheet for me I have my plot planned for the next four years......

Yowzers!! That's incredibly organised! 

I have an Excel spreadsheet and a notebook. And it all gets moved about regularly.

[cammi]

wbmkk - thanks for that I will have a look at those. Not heard of Visio before.

I'm currently doing a spreadsheet kinda thing on google, just showing sowing and harvest time  in colour blocks nothing fancy.

Im no good and visualising the beds, next year once Ive done a season I may have a better idea, thats all Im trying to do really, to get a visual idea of what will be growing and when.

excel workbook will have a look at that too.

Would someone mind post a sample of their SS to see how you pro's set yours out - thanks if you do

[wbmkk]

Another program which could be used is Inkscape, available from http://www.inkscape.org/en/

Also a free program, but this one certainly takes a while getting the hang of things. However, individual plants could be placed on a plan, even just a small green rectangle representing a cabbage, or a yellow one a sweet corn.

This is a vector based drawing program, so if you draw a small plant, it could then be enlarged as required without any loss of image quality.

Each 'plant' on the system can be copied and pasted just as you want.

Or if you plant in rows, a spreadsheet version would be OK ... a long rectangle could be a row of carrots one year, then a row of peas etc the following year.

[gavinjconway]

You guys sure have loads of spare time to draw cabbages and sweetcorn..

just a coloured block with the word cabbage or peas etc. is good enough for me.. I do colour code the different blocks of veg type for my rotations.. simples. 

[surbie100]

Im no good and visualising the beds, next year once Ive done a season I may have a better idea, thats all Im trying to do really, to get a visual idea of what will be growing and when.

excel workbook will have a look at that too.

Would someone mind post a sample of their SS to see how you pro's set yours out - thanks if you do

I know what you mean - I only started 2 years ago and it was really, really confusing. Some of it still furrows my forehead a lot. Personally I think us newbies worry a bit too much about messing it up.

I have this made up to scale on a spreadsheet where each (resized) square equals 10cm. I can print it off and scribble till I have it sorted after much reading of seed packets. At least lots of the spacings are similar. 

I put the number of plants I want/need in my sowing list rather than on the beds, as my plot size has changed a lot and I'm still digging the right-hand half. Any extras I grow are given to anyone who might like them.

Have a look at Cadalot's diary in the Gardener's Diaries bit - he's got plot plans and sowing plans on there too.

[Jackypam]

I have a nice note book that I had as a present ( red so I can find it). And I made a stencil out of cardboard so I can easily draw a nice tidy layout of my beds with a pen, then I write in each one with a pencil so I can change my mind regularly when things don't quite do what I expected...  Then I write a bit of a journal about key harvests and sowing dates and stuff on the pages in between.  I do computers all day at work (including Visio) , but I like my red book better for the plot. 

[Hampshire Hog]

I'm also in the notebook camp but perhaps I should look at the excel option. I have an A4 book one side I draw up shape of beds and what's in them the other I note when I plan to sow etc . I find the size of my beds changes over time . I also read up what the seed packets say what others and advice says here and keep an eye on the weather and what other plot holders are doing.
The seed packets are generic by definition so I think you need to go by experience initially others and then your own. Given our recent weather you have to play it by ear a bit !

Cheers HH

[MalcW]

Cammi, sorry for the delay in answering your question - I just use Excel. Seeds down the side, months across the top, sowing and harvesting in the middle.

But you've all got me thinking now; bed layouts, a timeline, costs and yields, a few macros to tie it all together...

...but then it'll be like still being at work. Perhaps I'll just stick with what I've got.

[Snoop]

I haven't done anything like as complicated as a spreadsheet. I tried a couple of garden planning programs and got quite frustrated with them. Now I have a notebook with squared paper on which I've drawn my beds. These I use to plan how many plants and where they're going to go in each bed. I can plan for individual cabbages, say, or a patch of carrots. This book also contains rough dates for lifting crops and details of the crops to follow.

I've also indicated in the book how much (if any) muck and/or ash each bed requires. This has been handy as my oh has been doing my rotavating this year and he can take the notebook out with him and easily follow it. In fact, this has perhaps been the most useful feature of the notebook this year. Buying a software program may prove an unnecessary investment because after a few years, you soon get an idea of what, how much and where you want to grow things. This is only my second year of what I laughingly call my "grand plan", but already I have a feel for roughly how many onions I can grow, for example, where they'll go and what space I can give over to legumes before the overwintering alliums go in.

Personally, I like having this in a book as I find it more flexible. I can ponder on it when the computer isn't switched on and when I take it out with me, making it easier to compare with the real situation on the ground. For example, while putting in some lettuce plants the other day, I spotted that my oh had slightly widened one of the beds and instead of having a single row of cabbages, as I had planned, I can now have two staggered rows, making it possible for me to grow more or freeing up space elsewhere for something else. For example, where I had planned to grow cabbages, I can now grow something else in the same rotation group instead, such as turnips. You can of course take a print-out of your computer plan with you, but even though I'm relatively tech-savvy, I like to have the durability of a notebook and to be able to update it instantly and on the spot rather than having to go back and switch on the computer.

As for sowing times, I've got a month-by-month schedule in Word. This could perhaps be better organised in a proper calendar program, but as I can't plan for particular days, only months (and even then things sometimes slip), this Word document is satisfactory for my purposes and it couldn't possibly be easier to organise.

It may be that this works for me because my main veg patch is relatively easy to organise: seven beds of 15 m long, five beds of 12 m long, all aligned east to west, making twelve beds in total, which I have divided into four rotation groups of three beds each.

I also have a somewhat more complicated smaller patch which has given me some headaches this year. Each year a bit more land comes into cultivation in this patch. It is more sheltered than my main patch and I work it very hard for climbing or delicate plants in the summer and for my overwintering crops too (spring caulis, for example). Even so, I still use my notebook and Word schedule for this.