I am extremely busy in the field right now, it is the time of year when pretty much everything can be planted. There doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day or days in the week to get every seed planted or every seedling transplanted into the field.
During January, I make a crop plan for the season. This crop plan is basically a series of spreadsheets. These spreadsheets help me to determine many things, such as how much produce I need to grow on a weekly basis, the amount of seed I need to order, organizing crop varieties, and the planting schedule.
The planting schedule is what I use almost on a daily basis throughout the season. Every January, I figure out the date I need to seed a particular crop and, then the anticipated date for transplanting that crop, along with an estimated first harvest date. This may seem like a lot of time spent, working on a calendar but during the mad rush to get everything in the field, it is calming to open my binder look for today’s date and see what needs to be started in the greenhouse, or what needs to be planted in the field.
But then as the month of May pushes on, the calmness seems to vanish as I open my binder and see all that needs to be done this week and all that didn’t get done last week and some time before that. So at this point it is all about planting and trying to get back on schedule. The weeds are growing but I pretend I can’t see them because I don’t have time to deal with them, I’ll get to them when I get to them. And that is how I keep myself calm this time of year. Knowing that I’m working hard and things will get done when they get done.
I’ve just started to harvest colorful french radishes and spicy mustard greens. The California white garlic is ready to be dug up and dried in the barn, the heads are big and beautiful this year from the early winter rains.