This is free software for square foot gardeners

Discussion in 'The Green Patch' started by Equilibrium, Feb 5, 2011.


  1. Equilibrium

    Equilibrium Monkey++

    I found this that might be useful for square foot gardeners, Gardener's Supply Kitchen Garden Planner, planting map | Grow Your Own Vegetables. Of course they offer "kits" but.... we don't need to buy their kits to use their free drop and drag software. It was kinda fun playing with it. I used raised beds and do companion plant however I don't follow square foot gardening practices per se.
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    Please share any vegetable gardening software you use. I'm interested in software that can be purchased so what I wouldn't end up trapped at a website logging in all the time.... something I could own myself and keep and add notes to and such that stays on my computer.
     
    melbo likes this.
  2. Equilibrium

    Equilibrium Monkey++

    With all these "preppers" here nobody uses any software for food production?
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    I found one software that looks like it has the majority of features I need, Vegetable Garden Planning video manual. It's only $25. There's a few problems I spotted with it that are making me nervous.
    Here's the biggest problem, Download the Vegetable Garden Planner Software, "You will still need a LIVE Internet connection to run Plangarden for both download and online versions because SAVES to your garden are made on a remote server." I really don't like saving all my data to their server because this assumes I'll always have an internet connection and that's a pretty big leap of faith in my mind. The other problem with saving my data to their server is that obviously everybody else has to do that too hence... those who buy their software only have the ability to view one prior year's garden data and layouts. Anyone who gardens knows you need access to all prior years for best results but.... I'm sure there's limitations to what their servers can store so they've got to cut us all off somewhere.
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    I know how to take screen shots and save them so I could do that but.... it's my data that this company seems to want to keep "safe" for me that's bothering me. Can any of you computer geniuses think of a way for me to use this software while hanging onto my own data? I've got Microsoft 2007 Word, Access, Excel, PowerPoint and just about everything else. I took some classes at the community center that introduced me to what they could do and I'm thinking.... no hoping.... there might be someway to get the data into Access or something else or is this just wishful thinking?
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    All these vegetable planning softwares seem to want to hang onto our "data" to keep it safe for us.
     
  3. kckndrgn

    kckndrgn Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Here's another thread where I posted another type of garden planner
    http://www.survivalmonkey.com/threads/garden-planner.27638/
    same limitation you mentioned, it's saved at a remote server. No big deal as I printed off a copy of the plan when I was done. It's not like I'm gonna tote a laptop out to the garden while working in it.

    Since it's the weekend, give people a little more time to see your thread. I would imagine that a lot of the gardening type people may be busy working on outdoor type stuff on the weekend.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 13, 2014
  4. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    Nice find. I may play around with it a little later.
     
  5. Hispeedal2

    Hispeedal2 Nay Sayer

    Very cool. My limited AZ container garden could use a planner. So far, I've been guessing with some success. A planner with soil depth would even be better.

    Speaking of which, I need to redo my containers this year.
     
  6. Falcon15

    Falcon15 Falco Peregrinus

    I use sheets. I try to hand write everything. It takes a little longer, but it is less likely to get zapped than my computer is.
     
  7. Equilibrium

    Equilibrium Monkey++

    This was interesting, Vegetable Garden Planner. It never did tell us for how long though. Looks like about 3 months to me for their family of 4 illustration.
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    This one we can own but... it has waaaay too many limitations IMHO, Garden Master.
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    This one looks interesting but.... haven't had time to check it out, Landshare Colorado. If anyone's got time... I'd be interested in what you guys think.
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    kckndrgn> I totally missed your thread and it's darn near back to back with mine. We should put my posts onto your thread and then I can delete them here or something so this is all in the same place for people. Sorry about that.
    I did run into that one from their home site, http://www.growveg.com/Default.aspx.... not through Mother Earth News. Maybe Mother Earth is re-branding it and taking a cut or something to support their site? I dunno.... it looks the same and it was free for like a set period of time too. That program didn't seem to be as comprehensive as PlanGarden but I'll take a second look at it. I found a few others, Vegetable Garden Planner - EZ Garden and Vegetable Planner. They all started looking the same after a while.
    --
    I keep forgetting not everybody is buried in snow like us for another coupla months.
    --
    melbo> thanks. Any help appreciated. I need access to my data.
     
  8. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++

    I used that type of set up before but in Az it thing with most gardeners i know that they all want the units off ground high enough to keep out the rattlesnakes or other very bad for your critters that are in the area where i live ..

    So have a plan to put them up about three feet off the ground with a steel rack set up with a simple strap across the open bottom to allow the person to see under the area and to poke at the buckets side to see if something does come out of the bucket before putting your hand in the bucket..

    In a tv show i watch alot i saw a lady who had a craft supply system set up that was made from recycled diff sized plastic buckets and she had set up them for storage of her crafting supplies with the smaller buckets at the top and the larger buckets on the bottom of the rack ..

    So my idea is to make something like that but without the bottom bucket to see the ground under the area to keep from steping on or mess with a rattlesnake or other little creatures who bites ..

    The idea is a 1.ft.wide -x-10.ft long -x-3.ft tall sized stand unit that has been weld togerther out of scrap metal that acts as a stand that holds a sqaured or round plastic container for gandening ..

    Each bucket has it own square or round bucket opening in the stand with a bottom strap on the unit to hold the bucket in a solid fixed prostion and allow the water to drain out away from the area if there is a overflow of the rain water be able to tend the bucket as need

    The tamoto or strawberry buckets will have a small metal lattice for there vines to be attached the lattice as the grow ..

    The potatoes will be grown in a large plasitc horse water trough to act as the growing station for them with it own stand ..The water trough would be about a 100.gallon sized trough to give the potatoes the depth they would need to grow as a need with the mixture of soil and other items inside the trough

    I want all of my items off the ground so i can see under them or around them for rattlesnakes when it hot outside or a person can not hide behind them as they would be able to do with a raised bed garden for personal security

    Plus get into a habit of takeing a long stick or pole and gentley hit the side container before putting your hand around them or in them dureng the summer time because of things could be inside them and some of them have a deadly bite
     
  9. neversaydie

    neversaydie Monkey+

    Really cool!
    I always did mine on sheets but love the computerized version.
    I am planning on getting back into it since i started prepping in earnest.
    thanks!
     
  10. Equilibrium

    Equilibrium Monkey++

    I’m pretty sure the Landshare Colorado 'Fantastic Farm and Garden Calculator' is out of the running.... it's not free and once they get you to register and have your e-mail address.... they remind you that you haven't purchased the calculator but.... we’re welcome to use their forums and I'm sure my e-mail address is going to get filled with junk this group and their "affiliates" will try to sell me. Skill level calculator access costs between $25 - $35 per season and this is another one that's forcing "storage" of data on their servers…… probably to keep us paying the annual fee for access to our own data. Anywho... each skill level costs, we're not allowed to switch skill levels in a season without incurring another fee, and.... there's no way to see what we're getting for our money. I’m thinking they’re pulling another Pelosi. Also too.... they're using PayPal.... I don't have PayPal any more. Forgot to mention.... the templates we’re led to believe we'd be able to try out.... they're worthless. They're a demo and they’re too small to read and then they inform us they’re used in conjunction with the calculator. Most of what I could see looked like a glorified excel spreadsheet. There were other little problems I spotted so maybe think twice before giving them any money.

    hank2222> Is this the thread you meant to post in, Waist high gardens | Survival Monkey Forums
    FFGC days to harvest. FFGC plant and row spacing.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 27, 2015
  11. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++

    here is some of the things that iam looking at for the diff style of waist high stands system for growing foods..
    Food-Map-Container_3315EAE3. RackMH. stand1_temj.
     
  12. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    My wife loves it! thanks tons!
     
  13. Equilibrium

    Equilibrium Monkey++

    hank2222> Knock knock ;).... say... here's the waist high gardening thread... again, http://www.survivalmonkey.com/forum/green-patch/27729-waist-high-gardens-2.html. There's a gal over there who might really benefit from the posts you keep interjecting here about the plans you have for yourself and the images of waist high systems you've found. She's new and it would be really nice if you'd post all your waist high goodies over there instead of in this thread on gardening software.... they're really two totally different topics and she'll never find them buried in a thread titled, 'This is free software for square foot gardeners'. Trust me.... I've used the search here and she won't find it even if she was specifically looking for other posts on waist high gardening.
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    Has anyone downloaded any trial garden software lately who is in a position to comment. It's February and pretty soon it's gonna start hopping here in the midwest as we start seed.
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    I'd also be interested in any software anyone else has found and definitely any access or excel spread sheets anyone's created that might do the same thing that we could keep on our hard drives.
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    UGRev> Which one does your wife love?
     
  14. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    She loves the entire site! :)
     
  15. Equilibrium

    Equilibrium Monkey++

    Ya.... the Gardeners Supply Site has some good info. Maybe suggest she shop their prices though... they're real high comparatively speaking.
     
  16. kain9662002

    kain9662002 Monkey+

    Thank you for showing us all these links, my family has started its own garden a couple of times. We started with herbs and moved on to some veggies.
     
  17. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    Has anyone used this successfully?
     
  18. kckndrgn

    kckndrgn Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    I'm using the gardeners supply online one right now, but finding some limitations. The biggest downside is you seem to be limited to the plants they have available. For example, I want to plant borage with my tomatoes this year, borage is not an option and I don't see a way to put one on there.
    I emailed myself the garden bed that I created but the graphics only partially came through, so I don't know if it's my mail client or what they sent.

    I do like the encyclopedia that you can print with your garden. Giving tips on when to start the seed, if it's cold/frost hardy, harvest times etc. The attached PDF was about 5 min of "work", not necessarily how I will plant but just something to try the software out.
     

    Attached Files:

    Tracy likes this.
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