Looks goo do to me, but then again, I've always just used plain old Excel. The tips are nice, but isn't that what you're here for?!

Agree. And for that matter, I suppose graph paper & crayons would do the trick, too. Ok, scratch that. I'd rather doodle, anyway.

I personally use an Excel spreadsheet, along with 3D modeling with Google Sketchup. It's a great way to plan, as well as to keep a diary of your garden for next year's planning.

Here is a screenshot of the layout for this year's addition:

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You can along the bottom the various tabs for the rows. Clicking on the tab (or the hyperlinked text on the layout map) takes you to this screen:

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This is for the indeterminate tomatoes. The diagram on the top is for spacing, and the table below outlines the varieties, and the expected key dates. Below that (and off the screen) are tables for entering the specific dates that seeds were planted, when transplants were moved out, etc.

If you are interested in something like this, send me an email and I can send along the excel file for you. Might take some time to get it catered to your use, but not much if you know anything about Excel.

Michael

I just found Plangarden.com when I was searching for some tool to help me layout the garden, and it looks really cool. Just what I was looking for. I'm about to sign up for the free trial. I really like the ability to be able to share garden plans with people. I put a link below to someone's garden plan that I thought was really well done, and colorful! I'm going to try it for the 45 days and see if it's worth $20 a year. Like you say, there's always graph paper.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cool garden

Hi Michael,

I used Excel in a similar manner when I was designing the raised beds for my formally-a-pool area. I still use paper for the actual planting design, but right now I keep having to move a cat off of whatever paper I need. Perhaps I should upgrade :).

Could you post a gardening screenshot from Google Sketchup? That looks really interesting, especially if I ever get to the "let's make it pretty" stage of gardening.

Thanks,
Bellatrix

I do!

I like it a lot, although there are some shortcomings (no easy way to calculate plant spacing, for one) the software is in active development by the creator, so I only expect it to get better over time.

And some of the features, like the plant date/harvest date chart do come in handy.

I'm an inexperienced gardener, but an experienced web software user, so take my opinion for what it's worth to you.

I just today emailed my garden to extended family members for (hopefully not too scathing) critique.

~emmers

Here is a link that might be useful: My Plangarden garden

That looks great Emmers! I like how you used text boxes to put the months in for your beans. I need to work on my paths. I think I'll try to use different colors like you did for the paths. I put the link to my garden below. It's a work in progress, let me know what you think.

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden

Wow! That's lovely, and so much bigger than mine! (I'm jealous.) Did you put that together in 2 days? I've been agonizing over my layout for months now.

I like how you represented the spacing of your plants/rows with the circles/rounded rectangles. That's the main 'feature request' I have for plangarden thus far - because I'm doing the wide rows I'd like a good way of representing plant spacing. I started out putting an individual tiny bean icon every 6 inches - that got old fast. But doing an 'area' of plants didn't give me any indication of how many I could fit, so i ended up using rows and calculating manually.

Thanks for showing me - you've given me some ideas!

~Emily

It took about 2 hours to put it together. I'm sure I'll spend more time though fine tuning it. I didn't actually make the rounded circles for plant spacing. It's a feature of the program, version 2.08. It's under options, preferences, under plant spacing, click show. You can control how much space everything takes up by clicking the row or plant and clicking and dragging the scale button. Most of the time the default spacing is pretty accurate though.
I think plangarden is a really good tool and I think I might subscribe. I look forward to using the harvest feature to track my harvest. I also like harvested estimate under plant information. I always forget when I plant things and when they should be ready to harvest.

Hmmm . . . I'd better stay away from that or I'll spend all my time virtual gardening.

I can just see myself in August, inside the house squinting at the screen . . . and nothing but bare ground outside: "Yeah, but it looks great on paper!" :-/

I am now.

gbig2 - now I'm embarrassed! I didn't notice that the spacing option had popped up - it sneaked in after I haddme my layout.

Thanks for the tip. I'll probably have to wait until next garden to play with it, but I'm looking forward to it :)