In the Garden with Kelly Faraday
A Garden is a Teacher ~ photo courtesy of Kelly Faraday
Spring has officially sprung and the season of planting and pruning is among us! Whether you’re harvesting from a homestead or have just a few planters on a patio, your planner can be an incredible garden tool (move over hand trowel!). We were lucky enough to connect with home gardener Kelly Faraday to give us the 101 on how to use a planner to prepare for and plant the garden of your dreams. Here’s the interview!
Tell us a little bit about your family garden and what it means to you
When we first started looking for a home to buy, we knew we needed great yard for gardening and our newborn son to play. It was our #1 must-have. We are on our 4th gardening season in New England. Every year we learn more and now that our son is turning five, the experience is even better. He loves helping start the seeds and checking them every morning to see if any seeds are popping up through the soil. He enjoyed looking through our seed catalogs and choosing what seeds to add to our collection. Gardening is truly now a family affair. As he is getting older he can help more. We also love the bees and butterflies visiting us throughout the spring and summer. We get to eat fresh and share with family and friends.
How long does your garden planner last?
This year I did a notebook with 12 blank monthly calendars. While we aren’t gardening all year round (one day, it’s the next dream/goal), we have monthly tasks to complete, whether to prepare the soil, clean up, or plan.
What pages did you include in your family garden planner?
Year At A Glance ~ jot down our monthly tasks
Year At A Glance ~ list our monthly seeds – the indoor sow and monthly direct sow.
12 Blank Monthly Calendars ~ here we plan which days we are working on our monthly tasks. Setting up our schedule. I also jot down what the weather is like for future planning.
12 Month At A Glance ~ extra notation for our daily, monthly planning.
Grid ~ for drawing up our layout and yard ideas. Also, have my seeds organization laid out here.
Fillable Lists ~ this is where I list things like our tools, seeds wish list, garden wish list, composting notes, plants that attract pollinators, and a running list of all seeds we have or had.
Story Board 3 ~ for seed profiles. I created stickers with a picture of each plant and then I write my notes. I re-organize my seeds, therefore I do not keep the original seed packets but I still want some of that information, plus any of my notes.
To-Do ~ a few of these are for extra listing and notation. I remember once on another blog post on Golden Coil, you can never have too many pages for making lists or notes.
Dot ~ for creating graphs for seed starting and direct sow logging.
Spreadsheet ~ this is for quick view seed information and graphing what season to plant what.
Notes ~ because again you can never have too many pages for writing down thoughts
What page do you find yourself referencing the most?
I reference my quick view seed info pages a lot and now that I have seeds starting I’m updating those as seeds start sprouting.
Seeds quick view ~ photo courtesy of Kelly Faraday
How do you use your spreadsheet page in your garden planner?
This is for our quick view seeds info. Here is a list of all the seeds I have for the year and then all of the quick information I need while planning out what and when I’m planting. Here I’ll have information on height, depth, spacing, indoor or direct sow, days to sprout and harvest, and if it’s container friendly. I also have a section for the sowing and harvest timing.
Warm season seedlings ~ photo compliments of Kelly Faraday
Looking for seeds? Kelly buys from Baker creek Heirloom Seed Co., Floret (for flowers) and Burpee’s for a few other things.
Happy Planting!