Now normally I use a ruled lined book from the dollar store and i do love my farm books. However I figure that I am putting so much effort into the gardens, the food forest and so forth that this year, I would step up my game.
This book came highly recommended on the homesteading groups and I liked that it kept a page on costs out, but really liked how much room there is for reporting each day and that it has harvest total place.
It has two pages for the fruit and I have them filled out and even added in one more spot on the bottom.. I wish it had three full pages instead of the two.. as it only has 24 slots of the fruit orchard and of course I have more then that.. so I had to decide what I would add into it and I was not able to break them down into kinds.. but it has a good note section so i will do more follow up in that regards into note..
Example, I had to just go with Apples and then I will need to use the note page next to it to break it down into the 9 kinds of apples I grow and their harvest numbers. I am not sure I can hold this to much.
I expect I will find the same issue with the veggies grown section, not enough pages there either but i do grow a big garden and a lot of different things.. I do think for the average garden/yard that there is enough space..
However given that it is for a family large garden, I stand by would be nice to have one more veggie page, and one more fruit page..
I do love the monthly at a glance spare, and the weekly area looks great! I really like the break down though the day because its true, we putter and I like that it allows you to putter record lol
We started our baby greenhouse at the first of the month and we are harvesting salad greens already, we have pea’s up, radishes up, and the patio tomato seedlings are up as well. I will need to transplant them into 4 inch pots today. They came up in 5 days..
I have hit a snag I didn’t expect.. the cost of soil in regards to microgreens, I have soilless sprouting trays and they would great but they are sprouts, not mircogreens and I used my main soil for doing the mircogreens trays but I figured out very quickly that it will cost to much to do them in soil.. because the soil is full of roots and the bits of stems left after means you can’t just reuse it.. so the chickens are very happy campers and that soil will come back into compost for my garden at a later point.
So I hit the internet and I have a large set of 4 trays including the stand coming that is a two part tray system that is to be used as a mircogreen tray that does not use soil.. I am of mixed hmm on it. I mean the seeds themselves only have so much that they can grow on their own without extra imputes so I will see how this goes..
Keep you posted on it.. I should have my first sets in full producing by the end of the month. Do you use the soilless microgreens trays, how have they worked for you?
On one hand I am not happy for another 50 dollar output this month but if it works, then overall it will be a big money saver and pay for itself within the year.. I have heard that soil is hard to come by this year.. I know last year that many peaple by the end of last season where really having issues with the soil that was being sold, and many were sold out, I have a feeling that its going to effect the ability and for sure the cost for buying soil this spring..
Mean while it appears that at least here in ontario that trying to find onion sets this year is going to be harder then normal.. So I will be starting Onions and Leeks in the next two weeks. Its been a good while since I have needed to grow onions from seeds.. but I was able to buy onion seeds for ones that I would never be able to get locally in sets so that at least is fun and interesting..
I will share as it goes, I have a interesting bunching Russian one, one that is to be a huge onion, it is said that it can by fall reach up to 5 pounds each (i will believe it when I see it lol) its not a keeping onion but i laughed and said to hubby. dang, those are the onions for sauce making.. one five pound onion per sauce batch haha and a few more..
What is the most fun onion have you grown? If you grow onion from seed, do you have a hot tip on a successful outcome!
Just another Day on the Farm 
Any tips on those onion/leek seeds? I started mine last week and they’ve begun to pop but I’ve never had a lot of luck in the past. Somewhere between sprouting and transplanting, things go South.
Morning, I have grown onions from seed before but its been while, I did it in alberta and Nunavut.. but never needed to do so here on the farm as the sets are so normally easy to get and grow.. but I do plan on doing just a post on them. So like you, I find they are very easy normally to germinate but then they get leggy, flop and they seem to get damp off really easy.. so if I had first off tips, plant them thickly,better to have to spend a bit of time pulling them apart and have them help hold themselves upright, second keep that light right over them, hang it low for sure and if possable, at least a few hours a day, keep a fan moving on them.. while it means you need to watch that they do not dry out , at the same time, they do not flop as badly if you are tough on them right from the beginning..
Thanks. I planted mine kind of sparsely so I’ll go back through and add a few more seeds. They’ll only be a few days behind the initial planting. Mine are in a south-facing window on a heat mat….I’ll add a little fan to toughen them up.
On the topic of garden records, when we moved into this house, we found a set of journals from WWI-WWII detailing the day to day stuff when this was a 500 acre dairy farm. Fascinating stuff. “On this date, Bessie gave this X milk and it sold at market for X a pound.” As soon as the historical society reopens, they’re taking it to conserve and display.
thats awesome on the journals, so very cool.. and yes a little more thick, you will need to tease the plants apart when you go to move them, but it will help.