School gardens can provide so much for a school. They get kids and teachers outside. They give variety to lessons. They can provide unique opportunities to engage children in other seemingly unrelated topics like maths, geometry, history and science. And they also can brighten up unused areas of the school grounds.
A wide range of fruit and vegetable crops are grown in New Zealand. They include oranges, lemons, avocados and persimmons, which grow in the warm north. Berries, olives and nuts grow in cooler areas.
Australia is huge and has a very diverse set of climates. In the US growing zone terms, climates range from USDA zones 7-12 across the continent. But Australia has its own hardiness zone rating system that differs from the US. The Australian system uses the lowest temperature for an area to create zones from 1 to 7.
VegPlotter has been free for all to use for over 6 years. But the rise in its use over the last two years has meant that the costs needed to run it have escalated. March was a VERY expensive month for VegPlotter and even with all your very kind donations, I cannot sustain it as a free service.
I hoped that the release of the Custom Plants feature as a Supporter Only feature would tempt more people to support VegPlotter, and it has. But it has not been enough to counteract the cost increases.
So I am left with only one option, to move VegPlotter into a new phase of being a paid-for service. I hope you all understand.
I plan to roll out the change on Monday (18th April).
It's not all bad though as I believe making this change will help me to put more time and resources in to developing it.
I've set an annual price that is still cheaper than the alternatives out there and I've also kept VegPlotter free for schools and pupils to use.
As a thank you to those that donated to VegPlotter. If you did support VegPlotter previously you'll be automatically subscribed and get a free year of the VegPlotter Advanced package which includes the Custom Plants.
Once again, thank you for all your support! I really appreciated it. This was not a decision I wanted to make.
Richard
One of the great things about VegPlotter is that it allows you to try out ideas before committing them to the garden. For example, you can try out layouts, planting schedules, or both with the garden planner. VegPlotter lets you plot them out beforehand and change your mind before setting foot in the garden.
One extension of this is the ability to share your plans with others. Letting others fully explore your layout and planting schedules month by month is a great way to gain from their experience. There are vast gardening communities out there, and tapping into and contributing to their wisdom is a great way to build up your knowledge.
This quick guide will show you three ways of sharing your plans with others.
