Garden calendar for my plants - online tool

All - it's been a little while since my last post, mainly because due to a house refurbishment, the garden has been in a sorry state. However, its now all newly planted and looking tremendous.

My problem is that having bought a large number of different plants, I now need to care for them and I don't have the time to build out my own calendar of jobs for each plant but would like to enter all my plants into a website and have it tell me on a month basis, what I need to do.

The only one I have come across is www.shootgardening.co.uk - is this one any good and are there others that people would recommend?

Many thanks, Nick

 

Any ideas guys?

 

I'm a bit of a tightwad myself so wouldn't want to pay out £36 a year for such a service when I can access many other gardening books and websites listing tasks month by month for free - e.g. Read our RHS monthly gardening tips & advice - September / RHS Gardening

I can understand your wanting to give all your new plants the best of care, one way to do it for free would just be to create your own spreadsheet. But to be honest I think as you gain gardening experience you will rapidly find it feeling like overkill. And one problem with both the published monthly guides and (I assume) something like shootgardening is that they can be a bit out in their timing, depending on where you are in the country and what our British weather has been doing.

So my own suggestion would be to look at the published advice, but also to spare a little time each day/week to wander round the garden and work out which bits to apply before you pitch in. And by all means if you think you're going to forget to do something, schedule your smartphone or whatever with a reminder. I use paper (my old filofax) to remind me what plants I am going to want to move in the autumn, other plants I spot and want to add to my collection at some future date (taking a photo with a smartphone would again be good, so long as you remember to note the name too!), etc.
Hope that's helpful - happy gardening!

 

I have a rough calendar in my head, but have never considered using anything online. As I see it plants behave according to the seasons and the particular conditions that year not the date. During the week I wander around and see what needs doing then do it at the weekend or, spring/summer, one evening. Nothing is particularly time critical, except perhaps for watering. I tend to do jobs when the conditions are right and I have time to do them properly.
This year I've been doing some major remodelling so the weeding, deadheading etc has been more erratic than usual, but the garden still looks alright.
If it's wet I do indoor jobs repotting etc.

 

@Clare G and @NigelJ 's Im in agreeance with the above posters ...and just to add that no one knows their own climate and growing conditions like those who are dealing with and experiencing it...so im not sure how postcode relevant the garden advice calender could be

• Im sorry to be a damp squib on your idea @nickp but i think as you've asked for your advice here it would be far more benefical to continue popping in for any further garden specific advice in this forum ...after all your not going to get a more friendly personal attention to detail advice any where else IMHO

 

Every year I receive extra calendars from suppliers etc. I like the little spiral bound ones with the squares just big enough to add notes.

I started mine by noting on the 1st and 15th of each month, the hours of daylight and historical first and last frost. Then as I accumulated seeds, where they needed starting indoors, I used the calculation from the # of days to start ahead of the last frost and marked "Start kelsae" or whatever on the calendar. I added the "sow outside" names for direct seed items. I keep adding things and then as I flip through the calendar the next year, I know when to start things and I can choose whether I will or I won't.

This costs nothing and after the initial data has been noted, takes little time if you jot down your notes on the fly.

I have, a couple of times at the New Year, forwarded my notes to a new calendar because the old one has gotten messy with me amending things or whatever. It is a good exercise to keep the gardening enthusiasm going whilst the snow flies outside.

I also made a scale drawing of my back yard which includes my greenhouses, cold frames and open gardening areas. I scanned it so I can make copies at will, then I write in where I plan to grow various plants in the coming growing season. I have changed the location and selection of what types of annual vegetables and flowers I plan to grow a few times and it certainly helps to decide how many seedlings I need to start.

Lots of fun to help get through the winter months

 

Just ask about certain plants on here?
I'm sure many would be able to help you out.
And I bet you get different answers from different people.
It is not an exact science, growing plants, it's more about watching what happens and common sense.
You can use the internet for a lot of things, but dealing with nature is not one of them.

 

Have been watching this thread with anticipation to see if anyone has any ideas about how they look at planting things or "jobs to do" but i think @pete comment echoes it all really - every garden is completely different, everyone's conditions are different, soil, pollinators, light, aspect, wormage, insects, slugs and so on, so it is nigh on impossible to give preciseness in dates as conditions and nature are different everywhere!

I love @CanadianLori 's calendar idea - am going to start my own using Google Calendars and work out what needs to be planted when - this is excellent! Thank you for the idea!

 

And that @toppington is why my calendars get edited. Lots of arrows "too early, move to this date" entries

 

Definitely! I like having the flexibility on a google calendar thing to very easily change something or move it a couple of weeks! Something to do when the evenings draw in! *adds to list*

 

I like making notes about my adjustments including the year so if I start a new calendar, I can see what adjustments I had to make and I do note actual temps if it is obvious that they are far away from averages. Just a curiosity issue with me.

 

Thanks all for your sound advice