Thursday
Yesterday I sure got sidetracked. Bottom line, I didn't get any seeds sown nor did I repot that waterlily that I had planned on doing. It started with looking for a specific plant tag for the yellow rose that I planted last year in the Lemon Garden, and spiraled off on a tangent from there.
I've posted before about my OCD record keeping. I love having information right at my fingertips with the push of a few computer keys. The records are only as good as the time you spend organizing them though. Last year I purchased a lot of plants, nothing new there, but I was so busy getting the gardens and house ready to host the Mid Atlantic spring swap, that I just kept piling receipts and plant tags in a pile on my office work table. Now with the 2024 buying season underway, I've been adding to that pile instead of organizing the information right away.
Well, I found the plant tag for the yellow rose that I wanted to id, and then decided to switch gears for the day and tackle the entire pile. I go receipt by receipt, scan the hardcopy or print to pdf if it was an email, then look up the plant in the NGA Plant Database to get the proper genus/species information, add it to my NGA Plant List tagged with Acquisition Year, Garden Area, and obtained date information, add it to my homegrown Access database that has even more detailed information, and lastly fill in the details to the financial transaction that was already entered in Quicken when balancing accounts month to month.
Seems like overkill, but each has a purpose. Having it in the NGA Plant List gives me online access to the information when I am shopping or want to show something specific to a gardening friend. It quickly links to all the characteristics and photos in the NGA Plant Database too. My own homegrown Access database has a lot more fields than the NGA Plant List, and I can easily filter, sort, and print reports for every question I could ever have about my plant inventory. I keep all financial transactions in Quicken, plant inventory is just a small part of the overall financial tracking of income and expenses.
My goal for years has been to retain information, but digitally. The only physical retention of plant information is the vendor tags. I finally came up with a great way to organize those a few years back.
It took me most of the day, but I got all the plant information entered into the computer. I also went through the receipts for all the items that I've been purchasing for the new greenhouse and got all that information entered into the computer too. Today I want to do the accumulated plant vendor tags, and then I'm all caught up with plant acquisitions.
It is still cloudy and rainy, a good day for inside work. Depending how long it takes to do the plant vendor tags, I may be able to get to that seed sowing and waterlily too. It is chilly in my turret office, but I have the space heater on and am wearing my new alpaca wool socks 
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