Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Getting Organized--A Little...

I admire those super-organized gardeners--really, I do. I'm amazed by people who map out their gardens, make lists of plants, and follow those plans.

I purchase plants and then stagger around my garden with them until I decide where I want to plant them.

The thing is that from one year to the next, I don't remember what I planted the previous years. The garden looks so different when half my plants are dormant.

I keep the tabs that come with the plants when I buy them. I throw them into my bucket and wind up with hundreds of the little rascals. They were really starting to pile up, not only in my bucket, but upstairs by my computer when I needed to look them up on the web, and as bookmarks in my gardening books.


So, I decided to tackle it in a spreadsheet. I'm sure I could have done more, but for me (for now) it's the information I need. I like to take the simple approach to things, so I made a spreadsheet to track my plants. If it needs to be fancier, I can always add a column or two.


The great part is that I can keep adding to it, and with a few clicks of the mouse, sort it alphabetically. Let's see how this works.

10 comments:

Ami said...

You are one step ahead of me! I also kept all those labels coming with the plant, and I ALSO had a spreadsheet for my plants. But my spreadsheet is not as organized as yours. It simply just includes names, and maybe a link and some notes about this plant... :) Yours looked pretty neat!

Isadora said...

I admire your ambition and organization! I keep a couple of garden notebooks but I'm always losing them, and I keep forgetting to refer to them anyway. They're so full of notes, sketches, tags and stuff that all that junk keeps falling out and I leave a trail wherever I go. A spreadsheet sounds so neat.....

Deborah Verhoeven said...

I tried to think of as much information as I might want this time next year without creating something I couldn't keep up with. :-)

Deborah Verhoeven said...

LOL, Isadora! Every time I opened my favorite garden book, all those tags kept falling out. Spreadsheets are easy to create, and can be altered as you go along.

Floridagirl said...

Well, I had never thought of plant tags as bookmarks! Great idea! I could probably actually find them then. Mine usually end up somewhere on a shelf in the garage or on the back porch until someone cleans up and throws them out (not me!). I always plan to be organized...husband says I'm the queen of good intentions. Good for you with that spreadsheet!

Susan (aka Sunny) said...

Hi Deborah and thanks for following The Beer Garden : ) I struggle with my garden organization...in part because I grow soooo many plants that I can't keep up with all of them.. Lol...I guess that's the fun of gardening though...you have to be flexible in case something doesn't work out. Happy gardening!

Meredith said...

I'm one of those nuts who makes lists and sketches -- and then doesn't follow them! Just yesterday I found myself doing a quick sketch of a certain area of the garden, so I'd remember what I'd put in there, as it certainly was not what was on the original sketch. Sigh. I have impulse control issues... and yet gardening is supposed to inspire the virtue of patience. ;)

Good for you for making a spreadsheet! It looks time-consuming and dead useful.

debsgarden said...

For some reason I naturally rebel against organized lists and plans on paper. it's all in my head! Which is one reason my head is so jumbled, like an over packed closet! A spreadsheet would be wonderful, if I could make myself do it.

Deborah Verhoeven said...

LOL! I'm not an organized list-making person at all. A spreadsheet is actually a simple thing for me to create. I try not to push the organizing thing to much upon myself. I just wanted something to refer to at a later time. I couldn't possibly list everything that grows in my garden.

Vetsy said...

Deborah that's a smart idea.. I'm going to try my hand at it..

I have done the same with my garden tags, only I posted them in my garden journal.

I could use the spread sheet as back-up in case anything should happen to my journals

Great idea! thanks for sharing.