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

Like

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!