Organize your seed sowing!
Are you sowing seeds yet?
I sure am! There’s over 100 trays & jugs filled with native seeds sleeping outside in our nursery! Yep- right outside under the snow!
AND I’ve started preparing trays for starting all those herb seeds from basil to lemongrass inside too!
Thrilled to say that this year more seeds are from our farm and from within 5 miles than ever before!
Wondering how do I keep track of them all?
Lots of folks use Excel or other spreadsheets with all the columns ect. I like to start with paper & pencil and then enter the info into a spreadsheet.
Some folks have called me out on the ‘Gram as a ‘dinosaur’ …
but I know I’m a damn smart & talented dinosaur. Having a paper & pencil works for me when I’m sowing seeds with hands covered in potting soil.
It works for me. However you track your seed sowing make it work for YOU!
It’s YOUR garden anyway so YOU BE YOU!
You are BeeYOUtiful
and no matter large or small
the garden you create for pollinators is too!
Why do I keep to my old dinosaur ways?
Because when the computer crashes, the power goes out, or my phone gets lost; all those gardening notes are on paper!
The most ‘tech’ I’ll need is maybe a flashlight!
Once I’ve finished the days seed sowing that’s when I make a cuppa chai and enter the information into a spreadsheet.
I also record them my BIG garden calendar!
(note: This calendar is not an affiliate link; I just love this calendar and think you might too! link on image!)
Gardening Tip!
Use a large calendar like this one for planning & recording the events in your beautiful garden. Then next year you’ll know when events like last frost or when the Wild Quinine bloomed…
Just to keep all my notes together.. the handwritten notes go into a waterproof binder labeled ‘Garden 2023’. I use the spreadsheet as backup.
Calico Asters & Tall Coreopsis seeds patiently preparing for the arrival of Spring
Let’s face it~ most of the time opening the binder is faster than searching thru a google drive!
HERE’S 3 PERKS OF PEN & PAPER…
Over the years I’ve found that:
Perk #1: I can read my notebook while sitting next to the fireplace in my old wingback chair. AND chances are pretty good my cat George will nap in my lap while I sip a cuppa hot tea while reading my notes…
Pets + Tea + Garden Book = HAPPY DINOSAUR!
And a very SMART DINOSAUR too!
Perk #2 is: with paper & pen you can actually write down what seeds you are sowing as you sow them.
Cuz let’s face it— sowing seeds is and should be a FUN MESSY playtime! It’s definitely not a place for a phone or computer.. this is #screenfree time after all!
Paper & Pen has another advantage over spreadsheets…
Perk #3 ‘BLING’
Pretty flowers! Since I sow most of my seeds in the Winter I like to ‘bling’ up my paper!
Long before I start preparing my potting bench for sowing seeds I print pretty papers to record all the seed sowing fun.
It helps cheer me up during the long cloudy days of January when I’m sowing seeds in my garage.
This year’s chart came out REALLY NICE…
SO cheery & bright, it’s titled:
Sowing Seeds of Joy
and to share the fun I’ve made it a FREEBIE when you join my email list, aka the Lazy Dirt Flower Gang!
For my own gardens, I also created a full Gardening Journal!
This journal is coming in SUPER handy with planning the new native display gardens that I’m designing & growing for the front of the farmhouse.
Recording all the 2023 gardening fun in a journal now so then next January we will all be be able to LOOK BACK to PLAN AHEAD!
But to do so .. you have to …
Record your gardening year!
From sowing seeds to harvesting your flowers & veggies, recording the events of your gardening year will help you remember all the fun had in the garden in 2023.
Then in the cold Winter days of January you can enjoy reviewing your journal to plan your 2024 gardens!
Now… let’s get seed sowing & planting those native flowers!
Your flower pal
~Melanie
