Now is the time to START planning next year
It might seem a long way off but now is the time to start thinking about what you want to grow next year.
As allotmenteers and kitchen gardeners we often get to that point in the year where we regret not planting something. The seasonality of growing your own fruit, vegetables and flowers provides limited windows of opportunity to sow or plant out. If you're not organised that opportunity can quickly slip by especially when you're busy in the spring.
Now we are in the months where we can reflect a little (whist we hoe and water), it's a good time to capture and make notes about what you want to plant next year. Look at what others are growing on their plots, talk to your allotment neighbours about what they grow. Look at what is growing well in your garden. Assuming the harvest goes well what would you grow again next year?. What have your eaten a lot of from the supermarket that you could have grown. Is there anything you wished you'd grown more or less of?
As you think of plants that you'd like to grow or grow more or less of next year note it down somewhere so that when you come to plan next years vegetable garden you can remember
There are many ways to do this including keeping a garden note book handy or using one of the many note taking apps on your phone (evernote, onenote etc.). You need to use something that you will remember to check when you come to sow and plant next year.
Another option is to use VegPlotter (our free allotment planner). We've built and developed VegPlotter specifically to help with this aspect of managing and getting organised on your allotment.
Once you have your vegetable beds plotted out in VegPlotter it is easy to add plants to your plan next year or any future years. You can even do so from your allotment site using your phone. Simply open your VegPlotter plot and move to the month in which you wish to plant or sow. Then find and drag the plant on to your VegPlotter plot. VegPlotter will even show you the areas of your plot you should avoid, to prevent a build up of pests and diseases (i.e. where you've planted plants of the same family in previous years).
Then, next year, VegPlotter will remind you each month what you wanted to grow. It will even tell you what and how many seeds you should sow indoors each month to make sure your have enough seedlings to plant out during the following months. Neat huh!?
VegPlotter is free to use. To give it a try simply register
We are continuing to build VegPlotter and make it useful to allotment and vegetable growers and we would love to hear from you. Let us know what you think: Like and post a comment on our facebook page, on Twitter, Google+ + or use the Contact Us link at the bottom of the page.
Richard VegPlotter Founder
