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CookbookHobbies and playNo. 54

A garden journalbeds, varieties, sowing dates and what happened

Recipe No. 54 · Hobbies and play

For: A vegetable gardener with six raised beds in USDA zone 7b

You get: Every sowing, transplant and harvest, filed by variety and bed

Time: Five minutes each Sunday

See it in know.sh

The season log: the harvest as a calendar, a day to a square, and every sowing, transplant and harvest a section titled with the variety and the bed.

The back gardenNo. 7

Season log 2026sowings, transplants and harvests

64 sections, 6,910 words, about 30 minutes, filed 1 March, revised 4 October, 5 highlights.

Six beds, zone 7b. The county extension office puts our average last frost in mid-April; the first autumn frost usually comes in late October.

The year started wet and cold, and the tomatoes went in a week late. The squash never recovered from June.

About 90 lb weighed in all, a third of it tomatoes. The busiest week was the one from 17 August.

Sections

  1. 1Sowed Sugar Ann peas, Bed 4Observation9 March. Two rows along the trellis. Soil 46°F (8°C) at 2 in (5 cm); slow to come up.
  2. 2Transplanted Cherokee Purple, Bed 2Observation, key24 April, a week late after the cold snap. Six plants, 2 ft (60 cm) apart, caged the same day.
  3. 3Sowed Provider beans, Bed 3Observation28 April. Soil finally past 60°F (16°C). Three rows, thinned to 4 in (10 cm).
  4. 4Squash vine borer in Bed 5Problem, key, 1 note18 June. Two Black Beauty zucchini plants wilting at midday, with entry holes at the base of the stems.
  5. 5First harvest, Cherokee Purple, Bed 2Observation9 July. Three fruit, 1 lb 6 oz (620 g). Two split after the storm on the 7th.
  6. 6No squash in Bed 5 next yearDecisionMove squash to Bed 6 in 2027, and keep it under row cover until the vines flower.

and 58 more sections

One variety as a section: the packet, where it grew, what happened this season and the verdict in the gardener’s own words.

know., Varieties, 3 · Look up, New, ⋯

The back garden, Varieties

3 of 21

Tomato, Cherokee Purple

Observation, key section, 1 highlight, 1 note, 2 sources, 318 words

Highlight, Note, Edit

From the packet. Indeterminate heirloom slicer, about 80 days from transplant. Bought in 2025 from the seed co-op; our own saved seed in 2026.

Where it has grown. Bed 2 in 2025 and 2026 (see Beds, 2). Move it to Bed 1 in 2027: tomatoes have grown in Bed 2 two years running.

2026 season. Transplanted 24 April. First ripe fruit 9 July, last picked 3 October. About 31 lb (14 kg) from six plants. Splits after heavy rain, so pick at first colour when a storm is forecast.

Problems. Early blight on the lower leaves from late June. Pruning the lowest branches and mulching slowed it; the extension fact sheet in the sources explains why.

Verdict. Grow again. The best-tasting tomato in the garden, if not the most productive.

You, 4 October

Try a cherry tomato in the other half of Bed 1 next year as a backup. Check the extension trial report before choosing which.

A local model filing a week of garden notes: a search, three sections, and one guess it declined to make.

A local model through Ollama, connected to know.sh

You

Using know.sh, add these to Season log 2026 on my The back garden shelf, one section each, titled with what happened, the variety and the bed, with the date on the first line:

  • 24 Apr, Cherokee Purple planted out, Bed 2, six plants
  • 28 Apr, Provider beans sown, Bed 3, three rows, soil 62F
  • 30 Apr, peas flowering in Bed 4

search Found Season log 2026 on The back garden

section_add Added “Transplanted Cherokee Purple, Bed 2” to Season log 2026, 14

section_add Added “Sowed Provider beans, Bed 3” to Season log 2026, 15

section_add Added “Peas flowering, Bed 4” to Season log 2026, 16

A local model through Ollama

Added three sections as Observations. Your note says only “peas”, so the third title does not name the variety; Varieties lists Sugar Ann, so you may want to add it.

How it works

By February, every garden has become “I think it was the far bed”. Keep it instead: your assistant reads the seed packets, files each Sunday’s sowings and harvests under the variety and the bed, and shades the season’s harvest as a calendar. You write the verdicts; only you tasted the tomatoes.

  1. Hand over the packets and the beds

    Give your assistant photos of the seed packets and a sketch of the beds. Ask for Beds, Varieties and Season log 2026, with a section per bed and per packet, crop first.

  2. File the week on Sunday

    Jot one line per event on your phone: “28 Apr, Provider beans, Bed 3”. On Sunday, paste the week and ask for a section per line, titled with the variety and the bed.

  3. Keep the harvest as a calendar

    Weigh each pick and ask your assistant to add the week to the calendar element in the season log’s overview: one value a day, with the storm and the borer marked.

  4. Write the verdicts in November

    Ask for a season-at-a-glance section with every variety’s dates, then write each Verdict yourself. The varieties you mark Key are next year’s seed order.

Try this prompt

Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model):

Using know.sh, add these to Season log 2026 on my The back garden shelf, one Observation section per line, titled with what happened, the variety and the bed, with the date on the first line. File anything that went wrong as a Problem. If a line does not name the variety, check Varieties and ask me rather than guess. My notes: [paste].

Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model):

Using know.sh, open Season log 2026 on my The back garden shelf and add this week’s harvest weights to the calendar element in its overview: one value a day in pounds, 0 for a day with no harvest, and an empty slot for a day marked ‘not weighed’. Mark any first harvest. Change nothing else, and tell me the week’s total.

Made with

ShelfDocumentYour AI assistantElementsLook upThe iOS app

See also