Veg Planner Spreadsheet

Some notes about my Veg Planner Spreadsheet

Kristen's Vegetable Planner Sample (Click for larger version)

This is a sample of what it looks like (click for a larger version)

1. Week numbers 1-52, and corresponding months (which looks slightly strange as some months have 5 weeks, and some 4)

2. Orange headings for the various vegetable “Families”.  Each Family represents one of the years / plot for crop rotation.  So the Bean Family plot in Year 1 should be planted with Cabbage Family in Year 2

3. Indicates that the plant can be sown Outdoors in Feb / March and

4. The Horizontal Stripe of Blue / Yellow shows a combination of Outdoor sowing (Blue) and Harvesting (Yellow).  Sowing can continue, and harvest will start for earlier sowings.

5. The Vertical Stripe indicates “next year” – so the Sep-Oct sowing is for harvesting the following year, also shown as vertical yellow strips which mean the harvest is next year.  For example, Brussels Sprouts shows vertical yellow strips in January, which is the tail-end of the harvest from plants grown the previous year.

NOTE: The Calendar is a guide. Different varieties may have very differnt timings, so you may need to change the Calendar, and the Data Columns below, according to the instructions on the seed pack itself

6. The data columns are:

• Type (7) such as Broad bean, Pea, etc.
• Variety is the specific variety name – i.e. the name on the seed packet you are sowing
• Bought – indicate the Year the seed was bought (so, if you don;t finish the packet, you can decide if it is now too stale to use again next year, or not)
• Supplier – brand name of the seed supplier – Suttons, Unwins, T&M, etc.
• Qty – the qty of seed in the packet – usually printed on the packet.  Its particularly relevant for things like Melons where the numbers of seeds vary from 4 to 20, and print from £1.50 to £5.00.  If you want 6 plants then you may not want to buy a packet that only has 4 seeds in it!
• Price – price you paid (e.g. half price in the Summer sale)
• Qy Req – the number of plants, or the row length [feet or metres, whatever suits you], you plan to plant. This may help decide if you actually have enough room in your plot!
• Dates – the date when the plants were Sown, Germinated, Pricked out and Planted (not relvant if sown direct), and the Bed they are in (a number, or name, of your choice).
• First / Last – the date of First and Last harvest. Last harvest is useful in deciding when the ground will be available for a follow-on crop
• Notes – any notes that you would like to record
• Extra – I marked the remaining columns as “Exta” for you to use for any additional purpose. e.g. the Weight of the harvested crop

8. Some of the cells have an indication of when the event may happen, these are coloured dark yellow.  Others are blank (light yellow). When you put your date in the cell they will change to Green.

Suggestions

If there is a plant type that you don’t want you can either remove that row, or “hide” it (which will mean you can “unhide” it later, if you decide you want it after all)

1a. Click in the left margin on the row. The row will be selected

1b. Right-click in the left margin and the pop-up menu will display

2. Select Hide

Bingo! No Brussels Sprouts this year!

There again, maybe you like Brussels Sprouts and you want two different varieties.  This is done in a similar way:

1a. Click in the left margin on the row. The row will be selected

1b. Right-click in the left margin and the pop-up menu will display

2. Select “Copy”

Now “insert” the copied row (a dotted flashing line will have appeared around the row you are copying from)

3a. Click the left margin of the row beneath – i.e. where you want to Insert – the row will be selected

3b. Right-click in the left margin and the pop-up menu will display

4. Choose “Inert Copied Cells”

5. The data will have been duplicated, so now you need to change anything that should be different – the variety, for example.

I would be grateful if you could Email a copy back to me periodically so I can collate the information from the various kind people who are recording this data.

Please leave a message, with your Email address, if you would like a copy (this blog doesn;t allow uploading of XLS files)

Thanks! Kristen