The weather is getting warmer in this neck o’ the woods so I am going to be working on my little veggie garden this weekend. I thought I would repost my Garden Table info since some of you may be working on your gardens too. Have a great weekend! 
During the summer I wanted to pursue a life-long dream of having a functioning veggie garden. As excited as I was, the thought of adding the maintenance of this dream to an already overflowing schedule literally brought me to tears. As Hubby was building my raised beds, I went to him and asked him to stop.
My heart was broken because I truly wanted to spend time working the soil and growing food for my family. Hubby refused my “stopping” suggestion and continued working on the bed. He felt that this was an outlet for my stress and we should continue on with the project.
I decided to ramp up my detail-oriented and creative juices to make a table to tell me when and how to handle each plant. I copied some info from each seed packet and put it in an easy to read table so that I did not have to search for each packet for instructions. So check out a sample of my table below:
| Item | Plant Date | Thinning | Notes |
| Beans | 7-21-10 | When plants have 4 leaves, thin to 4” apart. | Don’t work soil when wet. Mulch after thinning. Plant every two weeks. |
| Broccoli | 7-21-10 | When plant is 1” tall, thin to 1 plant every 2 feet. | |
| Carrots | 7-21-10 | When 2” tall, thin to 2’’ apart | Sow every 3 weeks for steady crop |
| Edamame | 7-21-10 | When plants have 4 leaves, thin to 2” apart. | |
| Lettuce | 7-21-10 | When plants have 3 leaves, thin to 8” apart. | To harvest; cut at base for continuous crop. Sow every 3 weeks. |
| Radishes | 7-21-10 | When plants have 3-4 leaves, thin to 1” apart. | Sow every 10 days for steady crop |
| Romaine | 7-21-10 | When plants have 3 leaves, thin to 10” apart. | To harvest; cut at base for continuous crop. |
| Spinach | 7-21-10 | When 3” tall, thin to 6” apart. | To harvest; cut at base for continuous crop |
I placed the table on a clipboard and can take it with me when I need to plant, thin or harvest my little garden. Thankfully I did not listen to Hubby because now I have my wonderful veggie garden and can maintain it too!
xoxo Paula
Are you a gardening gal? What do you grow and how do you fit it with all of the things you do?
A chart such as this can also be used for your perennial garden. I find it saves a lot of time and is a lot easier than trying to remember all the detailed information. Happy gardening!
Laurie – It does save so much time and keeps be on track. Tell me how do you use it with perennials?
We have few veggies in a pot garden. We have pumpkins and beets. Why? I go the packets for 20 cents each and just wanted JDaniel to experience growing plants from seed.
How did your pumpkin growing go? I tried to grow some in containers and even though I watered them a ton they did not make it!
What great information Paula, thank you! I wish I was better at gardening. My kids love to garden and I just can’t seem to keep anything alive…plantwise. Go figure.
How can that be?
I grew up having a garden–a HUGE garden–and hated it so much because it was sooo much work. Now that I’m older, I would love to have a garden. My crazy dog would chew up most anything in the backyard, so I have to be happy with a tomato plant or two in pots and the cukes I plant along the fence–on the outside of the backyard!
I love your table! So organized and easy to use! LOVE IT!!
Glad to help Paula! I am lucky that the area this raised bed is in is away from the dog! Thanks for visiting!
we’ve yet to try our hand at gardening. too much moving around living on rented land.
my hubby has expressed interest in it in previous years, so when the time comes it’ll probably be his domain! i’ve gotta love your organized approach, girl!
Great to have him be Chief of Garden Management! Before my hubby built this veggie bed, I gardened in containers and had quite a lot of produce. Just an idea for a start!
When I was growing up, we had a HUGE garden in our backyard and would grow all sorts of amazing things! I remember pulling turnips out of the ground, washing them off with the hose and eating them fresh. Amazingly enough, I haven’t had a turnip since then and I loved eating them!
Now that I live in an apartment, I’d have to have a container garden, which isn’t as much fun.
My son and I just finished helping my Mom put out tomato plants in her little garden last week. They’re growing like wildfire too! Can’t wait to eat fresh tomatoes!
[...] you need to know is that my folks were gardening fanatics. (This explains so much about me in my little garden.) Every Saturday, they would begin their yard work, manicuring the shrubs and lawns, planting [...]