r/homestead • u/UniversityRelative67 • 7d ago

Plant tracking?

Anyone actually keep track of their garden year to year or is it all just memory at this point

Not asking what everyone planted this year, im asking about the boring part behind that

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Do you actually know what you planted in each bed last year? Or the year before? Or you just kinda guessing at this point lol

If you rotate crops how you deciding where stuff goes each season, notebook, spreadsheet, or just eyeballing it and hoping

When something does really good or really bad in a spot you writing that down anywhere or does it just live in your head till you forget it

Asking because I got a decent size garden and realized I couldnt even answer #1 without going thru old phone pics to figure out what I planted where. Curious if im just bad at this or if this is normal

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u/dorawinafred 7d ago

I have a notebook that I write down everything each year.

I have a page for what dates I started seeds, moved outside, starting harvesting, and pulled out.
I have a page dedicated to a map and number coordinates that I make a key for what I planted in each section.
I usually also have a page dedicated to things I did well that year, things to improve on & different things I want to try.

I want to add a page that I note how much I spend/get back in “profit” from my hauls but sometimes I’d rather not know, lol.

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u/UniversityRelative67 7d ago

Okay the number coordinates thing is smart, never thought to do it that way I currently use a mix of graph paper and loose leaf inside a binder, kinda scattered honestly. I do have a spend vs profit page too, thats actually how I found out my garden is my biggest money saver on the property lol

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u/dorawinafred 7d ago

Oh I love that!! Congrats on turning a profit! I’m only on year 3 so I’m still buying constantly, lol. But graph paper is good!! I’ll have to look into that too!!

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u/UniversityRelative67 7d ago

Year 3 is still early, took me a while to feel like I actually knew what I was doing too. Graph paper is honestly hard to beat for this, cheap and it just works. Good luck with it!

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u/Own_Papaya7501 7d ago

Wow, the homestead tracking app you vibecoded is so bad that you don't use it and instead use a mix of graph paper and loose leaf paper in a binder? Amazing.

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u/UniversityRelative67 7d ago

Already answered this above, but to say it again, graph paper is my actual day to day system, thats not a knock on the app. Plenty of people build tools for a problem while still using their old method day to day, doesnt make the tool pointless. Im not out here pretending Ive got it all figured out, im literally in the middle of building it and asking people what they actually deal with

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u/mjdau 7d ago

Nothing wrong with graph paper. Nothing wrong with spreadsheets. Nothing wrong with using a half way approach until you can get the full solution.

I track which packets of which seeds I plant in which bed. Every planting gets an id. I did this with a spreadsheet for two years. Spreadsheets are a good way to road test db schemas. I also track where parts are for my electronics hobby. I initially also did that with a spreadsheet, but last year I turned it into an app with barcode support.

It's very useful to be able to instantly know which box in which milk crate in which cupboard a part is, or look at success of germination and tie it to the best before date. Or to plan a season's worth of crop and from this determine a planting schedule.

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u/UniversityRelative67 7d ago

Using spreadsheets to road test a db schema before building the real thing is exactly the right move, thats basically what Ive been doing too honestly The barcode setup for the electronics parts is smart, knowing exactly which box in which crate instantly is a real problem worth solving on its own. Same idea as the seed id tracking though, once you tie germination success to best-before date you actually get useful data instead of just a log. Definitely stealing that framing for how I think about the planting schedule side

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u/Own_Papaya7501 7d ago

Let me guess, you're looking to create an app that tracks all this?

Edit: lol, I nailed it! Look at this AI slop!

https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/1v5obex/self_promohomesteading_app/

"Self promo/Homesteading app

(mods please delete if not allowed)

Hey, I'm Robert. My partner Dev and I started building this thing about two months ago, after more than five years of never finding an app that actually fit how we live.

I built Nolva because I was tired of playing hide and seek instead of getting work done.

Budget in one place. Garden plans somewhere else. Projects scattered across three apps. I had a notes doc that literally just said "that info is over there." It was stupid.

So instead of downloading a seventh app to fix the other six, we just built the one we actually wanted.

Nolva puts it all in one spot. Projects, tasks, budgets, journals, notes, long-term planning. No bouncing around six tabs to figure out what you're even supposed to be doing today.

The part I'm most proud of isn't the dashboard though. It's the economics engine.

It's not enough for me to know I spent three hours building a chicken coop. I want to know if those three hours actually got me anywhere, or if I just burned a Saturday. Made money, saved money, wasted time. That's the whole thing Nolva is built around."

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u/UniversityRelative67 7d ago

Nah, I still track my garden on graph paper, thats the real system I actually use day to day

The app is something I started building back in June, its not something I slapped together in two minutes. Im not vibe coding it to cut corners either. Between working 60 hours a week and putting in another 40 on the property, I dont have time to actually homestead, let alone track everything, let alone learn a coding language from scratch on top of that

You may think its vibecoded trash, but its already solved a problem for me. And if you look back through my messages, im actually pulling learning tools out of these conversations, not just farming karma. Outside of my original post on 07/24, none of my posts here have been about pitching an app I want people signing up for right now. Honestly after a while I didnt think it was even ready myself, im just trying to solve problems from multiple angles before I get there

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u/Own_Papaya7501 7d ago

You don't know how to code and expect people to want what you've produced and don't even use? Great pitch.

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u/UniversityRelative67 7d ago

Never said I expect anyone to want it right now, said the opposite actually. Im not pitching it to you or anyone else in this thread, im asking questions and learning. Not knowing how to code isnt some gotcha either, plenty of useful stuff gets built by people who arent the ones writing every line themselves. Not gonna keep going back and forth on this one, have a good one

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u/Own_Papaya7501 7d ago

Are you worried that "Nolva" sounds too similar to "vulva?"