It is so hard to be patient when the snow is flying and the water buckets are frozen! Granted, there is a special pleasure to be enjoyed curled up on the couch with a steaming cup of tea and a stack of seed catalogues, but nothing quite compares to the delights of digging around out in the garden!
Meanwhile, I’ve been experimenting with the ipad version of a really good garden planning program previously available only online (at www.growveg.com). So far, so good! One of the best features of the program is the way it keeps track of  succession planting. With a large garden (let’s be honest – for some of us this is true for a small garden, too!) it’s hard to keep track of what was planted where in previous years. One of the best ways to control pests and diseases in the garden is to rotate crops and not plant members of the same plant family in the same place year after year. It takes 3-5 years for one bed to be safe to use again for certain crops. Who can remember that far back? The Garden Planner from growveg.com keeps track for you. When planning your garden next year, the beds change colour to warn you away from planting related crops in hazardous places! And, no, I have no affiliation whatsoever with these guys, but I must say I like using the program and love the fact I can now take the ipad down into the garden to do updates while I’m standing in front of the beds looking at what I’ve planted. Though, today, the only thing I can see down there is snow, snow, and more snow!! Soon… soon those warm spring breezes will be here and I won’t be stuck doing virtual gardening at the keyboard!
darkcreekfarmdotcom 