Remembering to review (autumn)
So many gardens (well where I grow) start with just throwing things in the ground and seeing what happens.
Great until you’d like to replicate the process.
Take notes. Take loads of notes. If you don’t take notes, take photos. The good thing with that wonder device in your pocket is that it time & dates stamps stuff AND there’s also room to make notes on the image. Also a bonus when you’re looking though your camera roll, not wanting to scroll for ages.
Taking photos is also a great way to give yourself a virtual pat on the back for achieving something. At the very least it reinforces your commitment to growing good. It’s a bit of a life saver when you’re feeling a little down on yourself & crops don’t look incredible – there’s a moment in time when they did or will !
I was about to rip out a whole crop of brassicas because the white cabbage butterfly mauled them. There they stayed as I got distracted and the weather cooled. Low & behold – the quality seedlings charged forth & now growing full steam ahead.
It also pays to take weather notes & do a little preemptive check of the weather forecast to know what you’re in for. I check at the beginning of the week for an overview & then ever few days as it can vary. The reason for this?
Planning your jobs. You don’t want to schedule a full day of weeding & then it rains all weekend. Likewise – you don’t want to plant all your vulnerable seedlings and then have them baked the next day as a heat wave rolls through town.
On the flip side, the tail end of your season it’s really important to review what worked, what you’d love to do again and what wasn’t as successful. For me now, I know to leave brassica planting until at least mid March (a month after when I initially thought I had to get them in the ground.
A little bit of learning your local area goes a looong way. Being coastal means we’re not going to get anywhere near the same kind of winter as someone in the southern highlands – so their planting schedule will be different.
So take the happy snaps - it’s amazing to have the reference as a reference point to our ongoing journeys of abundance.