Winter is the time for making plans for the main growing
season. While the sometimes frenetic
activity of a farm is invigorating, I really enjoyed the time to study and
think for the past few months. January
was filled with bouts of mouth-watering pleasure when considering which peppers
and melons to eat in August.

One of my main projects was developing detailed plans for
what to put in the ground when, and the natural implications for preparing of
beds, distributing finished and building new compost, space-time relationships
in our little greenhouse, harvest duration, and number and varieties of seeds
in stock and to be ordered. I like
working with numbers and wanted a way to efficiently go through iterations and
refinements of our crop plan. There are
so many variables that optimizing one can cause problems elsewhere. As we explore these relationships we find
compromises and end up with a plan we have confidence in—knowing that the real
world will “interfere.” Plans are useful
for organizing time and resources, and signaling to us when we are ahead or
behind, but we also know that a change of course may be needed if new
information demands it.

Attached below is a spreadsheet file with many linked
pages. Each page is drawing attention to
a particular issue of farm life. It
starts with the decisions of what crops to grow (e.g., tomatoes), and how much
of each we want (e.g., pounds per week).
The amount of food can be translated into approximate areas (e.g., 200
square feet). Each plant that gets put
in the ground starts as a seed, so we can estimate backwards from harvest time
to seed time and therefore greenhouse space if required (e.g., tomatoes harvested
in early July begin in the greenhouse in early March). When clearing an area for a vegetable crop,
the cover crop sown in the fall is removed.
This becomes material for compost piles that are applied a year
later. Does our crop plan allow cover
crops to fix enough nitrogen and produce enough carbon to make sufficient
compost for our site (ca. 2600-5200 lbs per year)?

The spreadsheet is made specifically for Brookside Farm, but
could readily be modified to suit farms of different sizes and locations. It is modeling the annual pattern of
intensive vegetable cultivation with cover crops. If you find this useful for your situation
please let us know.