Using Downtime to Plan
Downtime, I hear you all question. DOWNTIME? It’s spring, there’s no downtime. Well sorry folks, this is 2020, so downtime is all we’re getting!
For any gardener or market farmer, the winter months are the ideal time to sit down and plan the following seasons crops. Jean-Martin Fortier explains this in his excellent and much beloved book The Market Gardener. It’s also a good way to while away the winter months dreaming of sowing and lengthening daylight.
Most gardeners can get away without being too precise (me - circa, all my life), but if you’re planning on starting a market garden business that actually needs to grow crops to generate money, there’s the need for more precision. I completed exactly none of this required planning during the winter months - I was ill, I was lambing … my list of endless excuses goes on. Now of course, I see it was a silverlining because any plan for my 2020 starting a business year has been well and truly trodden upon.
However, in a bid to still remain somewhat productive during these troubling times, I’ve realised planning is better late than never. I’m still working full-time but I NEED something to focus on during downtime to keep my head in the right space and have something to look forward to. As previously mentioned, my business should already have been under way for now.
My latest YouTube video sets my exact plans, and you can watch that below.
My plans for Brimwood Farm are somewhat ambitious, but if you’re going to dream, dream big, right?!
I’ve broken projects down into 4 main categories:
The Market Garden - PRIMARY business
Livestock - SECONDARY business
Conservation - PERSONAL goals
Miscellaneous and Infrastructure - Additional projects that fall into any or all of the above categories (perimeter fencing, for example)
As you’ll see from the video, I’ve then broken each project down into a further 4 categories:
Jobs List
To-Buy List
Business Plans - with ideas for Year 1 and Year 2
Layout - this is primarily for the Market Garden though I also have site-wide layouts where particular projects will be located or livestock grazed.
I have to say, I was getting really bogged down with the all the details but laying it out like this has really helped. Using a dedicated planner allows me to stay organised too. And I’m finding that prioritising has become easier. What do I need to buy first, for instance? And, Which projects HAVE to be started in Year 1? For example, though I LOVE conservation, it certainly won’t pay the bills. It means I need to concentrate on the Market Garden and Livestock initially to bring in an income that can later fund some of the more ambitious conservation tasks. There are a lot of projects I want to do, like keeping bees. But I’ve realised I just do not have time so the privilege of caring for some hives of buzzy, stingy things will just have to wait.
I’d love to know how, when and why you’re planning your growing year regardless of whether you’re a passionate ornamental gardener or are looking to build a farming business. How do you do it? Let me know in the comments.