I've had a raised bed vegetable garden for a couple of years now and would like to take the next step and turn it into a year-round producer....which I believe is possible given that I'm in CA USDA zone 9 and Sunset zone 14-15.

I'm confused about what to do and when, so I really need to rely on a calendar to remind me. I've begun an excel spreadsheet...listing vegetables/fruit down the page and all the stats across the page....when to plant, what the spacing is, etc. etc.

I can create a spreadsheet with a column containing a formula that calculates the average planting dates of all the items based on the average date of first/last frost. For example, if you are supposed to plant "x" 2 weeks after the average date of last frost, and your local average date of last frost is 3/1 then the calculation would tell you to plant "x" around 3/16. It seems though, that someone else has already probably gone through this tedious exercise.

Has anyone done this already so that I don't waste time in reinventing this wheel? If so, can you share a template? If not, have any tips, suggestions, ideas on how to do it best?

thanks!
---Lucia in CoCo County, CA

I've considered using one, but a more primitive system works fine for me -- writing things down on a wall calendar. It stays right out in the main room where I'm less likely to forget it. When I'm planning the garden, I go through with a colorful pen and write my target dates for doing things, and later make notes of what I planted when. At the end of the season, I can stash it in my seed box.

You can change the formula to reflect your own frost dates.

LC