Yes, becuase at the old house and my first year of wintersowing , trading and buying plants, I got swamped, I would walk people around the yard, they would ask me what something was and I would be ummm, ummm... give me a second already!

So now, I log all my wintersowing starts in a garden journal my wife purchased for me, I am also going to put down anything I plant... plus all my daylily crosses Im starting etc...

Ive learned its just too much to keep down in my memory, with everything else going on in my life!

forgive the mess.. we still havent been in the house that long! So things arent as organized as they should be, though its looking better today than when I first started wintersowing.

{{gwi:354018}}

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What doesnt show in the journal is that I also date when I started that particular batch of group, this was my first batch done back in mid december, I probable shouldve started the trees and clematis earlier, but again, we just moved in novemeber, so it couldnt have been too much earlier!

I keep a similiar "running list" as the grand total of my record keeping. Each time I have a sowing day, I take the (now empty)packets to the computer and type in the date and the seed names on a running list. Then I take the empty packets and throw them in a zip lock baggie, mark it with the date, and throw that in a box. That's it. I know longer even pretend I have time to go back, put in germination dates, where they were planted, etc.

But the date/name list IS very helpful in knowing what I've got out there in the sea of plastic!. I also keep a running total of how many containers I have planted on there. As of yesterday, 121 jugs and plastic salad boxes of perennials.

I did not start anything last year till Feb. 16th and it all went well Pyrgal. You'll be fine. No worries.

Nancy

When I started this year, I had just bought a new laptop because my pc crashed, I lost everything. This year I had planned on having some of the neighborhood girls help me, so I started a Yahoo group and put all my records in a data base I started there. I feel safer that way, knowing if, God forbid I crash another puter! Plus it's there for the girls if they decide to help.

I have things in there like name, common name, color, height, spread, bloom time, light requirements, sow date, sprout date, container sown in, planing date, and final garden location. So far I think I have close to 65 varieties posted that I have sown.

Yes, I am quite detailed about record-keeping. I have a master sowing chart in Excel that is jam-packed with data including Species/cultivar name, Date Sown, # seeds, Date sprouted, Date Planted, etc. It also includes some basic cultivation info about the plants (Sun, Wetland Code, Height).

This chart not only keeps track of what I've winter/spring sown, but also what has been direct sown and germination tests performed on seeds. I write in the data with pencil along the way, then enter it into the spreadsheet later on.

Okay, I admit, I'm sorta anal about the record keeping part of gardening. My gardening style tends to be much more relaxed and naturalized however, except for the front gardens, which are a little more formal.

I keep basic WSing records. I have a MS Word document with several columns:

name of seed
how many seeds sown
date of sowing
date of first germination
how many germinated

I do list the seed alphabetically, which is why doing it on the computer is helpful - I can insert here and there, since I don't actually sow alphabetically, lol.

I'm not a big record-keeper, so I'm kind of proud of myself that at least my WSing is somewhat organized!

:)
Dee

When I first started I kept records, seed name, date sown, germinated or didn't germinate. Now I just keep a record of what I've sown. And thats it, but my beds are quite full at this period, after WSing for 8 years, so I have now 25 containers almost already to sow, and I'm not even sure what I'll be winter sowing this year.

Alberta

nancy_drew, I did something similar to you. I started an igoogle site (also had lots of fun adding google gadgets) where I keep notes and tables regarding the planting time, container type, and other observations for the seeds I have wintersowed. I keep it in igoogle because it's free, they don't bug me with ads, and I dont have to worry about losing the data if my elderly laptop dies.

Lois in PA

I keep records of when I've sown them in a journal. I also started marking the ws containers simply with numbers, then document in my journal what the number is. I'm hoping this will make it easier to re-use some of my containers.

I try to track other things in my journal too. When I start using the greenhouse, when I start my seeds inside. Then I can reference back to it the next year to know that starting my tomato seeds in early March is much too early because I'll have 4 foot tall "tomato trees" to plant out come late May ;)

I keep a notebook with # of jug, seed name, date Sown with a NSL (if there are no seeds left) notation, germination date, and date planted or container discarded/dumped.

Occasionally # seeds is included if they are special seeds or large seeds.

This winter I am transferring that info to a Word document as the pencil writing in my notebook is fading. Now I use permanent ink for the notebook. The Word document is helpful when looking for info to share with others or to plan this year's wintersowing.

I do not really know how to use Excel and find the charts with lots of info dificult to read.

"...The Word document is helpful when looking for info to share with others or to plan this year's wintersowing..."

Actually, that's pretty much why I started keeping records in the first place. After WSing for a few years, when others asked questions, I wanted to be able to help them the same way others had helped me. As a secondary result, it's also helped me to keep track of when and what to sow, and what did well for me and vice versa.

:)
Dee

Just reading this I got some wonderful ideas. This is my first year wsing and I only had the date and name of seeds. I just added them to excel and added a bunch more fields.

Thanks for all the info.

I had a good time color coding my excel sheet. I tried to put the color of the flower if I knew it, different colors for diff. months sown, and for sun requirements. It keeps all the lines separate for me. It is also nice to see the color I might have come summer.

I write everything down in a .59¢ spiral notebook. I cart this around with me and keep amazingly accurate records right up until, oh, maybe late June. Then I forget it outside, it rains, dries in the sun, puffs up to about 3" thick with lots of weird-looking ink squiggles, and that's that. But at least I'm consistent.

for those who are keeping soft copy of records, it would be good if we could share it. may be use docs.google.com or something like that.

So far I am numbering the jugs then writing down in a notebook what seed went in what number (plus date).
Heaven help me if I lose the notebook. :)

tosser, LOL.