Planners

COWLOVINGIRL

Who else got the OLDFASHIONED ON PURPOSE PLANNER for this year?

dipat2005

@COWLOVINGIRL I cannot live without one!

karenjanicki

I have never used one although honestly it might be a very good idea. I think this is going to be a busy year for me so it might be worth investing in. Thanks for the reminder!

happy-trails

Never heard of it, but organizing is not my forte, so I'll have to check this out!

Annie Kate

I make my own planner pages, based a lot on David Allen's Getting Things Done and some on Michael Hyatt's and Ruth Soukup's planner/productivity philosophy. Simple computer paper in a binder, a two-page spread for each week. I print out about a month's worth at a time and can adjust it anytime depending on life, health, new commitments, etc. I love it and will never go back to a pre-printed planner.

tilathehunn

I have been using the Franklin-Covey system...is it similar? Less expensive? I tried a different one for 2021 and quickly realized it will mot meet my needs so returned it and went back to Franklin-Covey

Jens the Beekeeper

@monica197 nothing beats pen and paper in my opinion.

Just sitting and planning the garden tasks for the year on a month by month schedule. Will be a bigger binder.

VermontCathy

@Jens Spreadsheets are very handy, but sometimes you need a notebook and pen too!

Cornelius

I feel like a slacker on here since I just write on a piece of notebook paper everything that I have to do for the next week and change to a new piece of paper every week. Although, I do like some of these other ideas!

stephanie447

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/885582#Comment_885582

I use a Franklin-Covey style planner and calendar as well, even though I also have everything in an online calendar. It helps to be able to write down my to-dos on specific days rather than one long list.

Jens the Beekeeper

@VermontCathy you are absolutely right on spreadsheets but I have to use them for work so many times that I prefer not to use them for private stuff.

Although I have some for my beekeeping especially for queen rearing.

COWLOVINGIRL

@Cornelius You don't have to feel like a slacker at all! We all have a system that works for us.

VermontCathy

Here's a view of my 2020 garden schedule. I haven't updated it for 2021 yet.

It's a little hard to read since I don't want to make the image too large, but the columns across the top are vegetable and fruits (onions, scallions, chard, lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, etc.) The black vertical column near the left are weekly dates. The calendar at the right lets you visual the growing year. The far left column includes notes on when the soil was workable, when things were actually planted rather than planned, when actual last/first frost occurred, and so forth.

The blocks in the center are color-coded. Gray means chit (soaking seeds before planting). Yellow-orange with "CF" means plant in a cold frame, or "Indoors" means start the seeds inside under lights. Green "DS" means direct sow outdoors in the garden. Red means transplant live plants outdoors into the garden. Purple is harvest.

What similar visual aids have others created?

VermontCathy

This is a picture of the paper notebook where I keep detailed notes on things that worked and didn't work, number of seeds in pakages from different sources, and othe ruseful information.

I also use the notebook as a place to draw diagrams of what was planted where on what dates, which helps make sure I do crop rotation. It's also useful to identify what came up and what did well when I plant different varieties of the same vegetable.

What does your garden notebook look like?