planning

planning is critical,
tiny changes can make or break your crops,
you have all winter to plan,
take advantage of that time.
and you will need most of the winter time if you are doing things correct. (much of the time reading seed catalogs and websites... deciding what to plant)


remember that you need plans that are adaptable and can move with conditions,
backup plans on top of back up plans.
have plans for anything from bad weather to an earth quake breaking your well shaft, insects, and germination failure,what ever heads your way you should be ready,
trying to figure things out after something happens can take away valuable time,
if nothing bad happens and you planned well, then you will not forget anything,
all your crops will be put in at the correct time and all of that. (you should be starting peppers in dec. and you will miss it by spring)

remember that you can do most if not all your dirt work in fall when it is cool enough to work all day,
and then you will not be doing to much in spring when you should be planting and other things.

see how planning can help so much ?

remember that nature has no innate plans for you to live,
it is you battling the insects, gophers, racoons, deer, the weather, and other things in addition to getting the plants to grow,
adaptability is critical, there are many ways to do most things, keep the tradeoffs in mind,
nothing cares how hard you try, not even a little bit...
you have to be at least sufficient. (and once you are, it is likely not that hard)
and planning gets you a long way to being at least sufficient.

I am testing lots this year, and some things are not working out so well,
but if I really needed the food I would be very conservative with new things and only trying them in tiny areas that I don't need the food from, and not an entire and only plot like I am trying this year.
I would have also been out there watching the crops all day and most of the night if I really needed the food,
the dog is not keeping the deer away like it use to, and I hunt gophers better than the cats.
and if I need the food, then likely so do others... so not time to sleep inside where I can't see or here anything

so don't forget to plan to plan your garden, there is lots to think about
and there is enough that you can't plan for,
so be ready for the things that you can plan for.

and here is a cute bat that was pointed out to me,

cute and eats insects, I want them working for me, now I have to figure out how to make that happen.