Keeping Records

Long time, no blogging. Life has been busy in the garden, but it is only with the Easter break that I am finding a little time again. And today, only after getting two large batches of pickles on to brine.

So, because I am at work in the kitchen, my mind has turned to record keeping. Years ago I tried keeping a paper diary for the garden, but it was too difficult. The only one I keep now is an exercise book in which I make notes about which pickles and sauce recipes I use - and how I vary them, what we think of them etc. That book has been going since 2000, and is really useful. My Beloved also has an exercise book in which he scrawls some details when he plants seeds.

The other thing that I have now settled on, is how I name and keep photographs. I have a folder just for garden photographs, within my photographs. Then, within each one, I create a folder for the month, naming it with the year and month. This month is 2009-04. That way the folders are always in order. There are also a few sub-folders in the main directory for themes such as Irises, when I am trying to work out which one is where.

Within the folder for the month, I name the photographs with the date taken, down to the day. Then each one taken that day is given a letter of the alphabet. This photograph is 2009-03-21h. In other words, it was taken on 21 March this year. That way I can compare the progress for this month with the same time last year.

So my main record now is this blog, which has been going for a few years. This is where I put odd comments about the unusual - such as that in our first year of growing Amish Paste tomatoes, which look a bit like Ox Heart, that this year it has grown a complete second crop. I picked the first, it flowered again, and I now have another heavy crop on one bush. All my other bushes for the Amish Paste

Has anyone else had that happen with Ox Heart / Amish Paste?

This was the second crop a few weeks ago - it is much heavier now.

And my first crop of green manure is in. I was quite impressed with it last year, so tried to get it in earlier this year than June.