Tutorial...garden journal

[amid chaos]

A garden journal isn't just a diary, it's important information to help you get the most from your efforts. You won't find a better source of growing and gardening tips for next year than the ones you write yourself this year.

First, find a suitable notebook to record your garden design plan and plant choices for this year. Leave plenty of room for technical data and personal observations. Save space for "before and after" photos if you like. You can even get the children involved. Here are some ideas for the information you might want to record:

Technical Data

Your garden plan (drawn to scale on graph paper).
Plant varieties. See our Plant Guide for some ideas.
Planting dates.
Performance ratings.
Food crop yields by date, by weight, by variety.
Bloom times.
Plant pests and diseases, making sure to note when they appear and what plants they're attracted to the most.
Beneficial insects.
Fertilizers used, application rates and results.
Pesticides used, application rates and results.
Weather notes, especially those that may affect garden results (late frosts, hailstorms, drought, etc.).
Notes on bulbs or perennials that you divided or propagated this year or may need to next season.
Costs incurred.
Notes about plant rotation for next year.
Moon cycles.
Watering schedule. You may want to install irrigation someday and these notes will help you decide if it's necessary.
Personal Observations
Photos from different angles and each season. Try "before and after" shots. Make sketches if you're artistic.
How the plants perform esoterically.
How the flowers smell.
Companion plants and the results.
Pressed leaves, flowers.
Wildlife notes — the good, the bad and the ugly.
Human visitors and their comments.
Recipes.
Those plants you want to add next year.
Those plants you never want to grow again.
Reminders and ideas for next year.


Don't be embarrassed to add strictly personal thoughts and observations, after all, it is your book.

here are some printable journal pages
http://www.birds-n-garden.com/free_printables.html

 

[Tulirose]

I've been wanting to start a garden journal since around the time I found the original garden thread last year. (It was last year, wasn't it?)

Your link to those printout pages is great. I had thought of getting a three-ring binder. As a matter of fact, I think I went as far and actually bought one at one point. (I think my son used it for college this fall). I figured a three-ring binder would be good because then I could add printouts downloaded from the internet regarding care and other information about my particular plants.

I also started last spring (May, I believe) to monitor the sun and shade on my property. I took my survey from when we bought the house and made copies of it and added the fences and sheds we put on the property (also white-outed the fences we took down and the tree house and some cement work which was also removed) (Rosemary - why don't you just say you updated it?) and then three or four times in one day I monitored what areas were sunny, shady, mixed. It was a lot of work and took alot of my time and dang it if I know what ever happened to those pages!! (If only I had put them in that 3-ring binder I bought and then my son would have had to get his OWN binder for college!)

But thanks Amid, this is a good project to get started on after the Holidays. But first, I gotta start getting ready for Christmas... I've done NOTHING in that regard!

 

[Mamu]

Thanks Amid, this is such a wonderful idea.

Sadly though somehow I never find the time too write down my garden do's and don't.

I will have to rely on this board as my gardening journal and try to gather-up all the info I can as to, what to do to improve my plants. All the buds here are so knowledgeable.

 

[Snowwark]

A garden journal is such a common sense idea, and yet hardly any of us keep one.

I know that I'm starting to have trouble remembering exactly when such and such perennials were planted (an age thing? lol), and although I keep my tags, and note on them whether they were a success or failure, it's not a very well organized system.

There are many different types of journals available at the bookstores, maybe we should be asking for one for Christmas? A New Year's resolution for the Buds, keeping a garden journal?

I have a feeling mine would be filled with a lot of this....@%#$&@$!....

Wonderful post Vanessa!

BTW - I need to change my ink cartridge, so I can print out the "Projects to Jump On" page, except I'm going to put a Santa hat on the frog!!!

 

[DixieDreamer]

I did a formal garden journal about 5 years ago. It really was a useful thing to do... unfortunately it was just too much of a commitment of time ... and I have not kept up that practice. What I do now... is that I keep a pictorial journal of my garden each year. I take digital pics at different times of the year - wide shots that show the overall feel, and close up shots that show the actual plant details. Now I look at the pic folder on my CD for a year, and see how the garden progressed from spring through fall. It really helps in the middle of winter when you are thinking about "plans" to be able to pull up a picture of a specific garden area at mid season ... noting the colors that predominate... the areas that seem crowded or empty ... etc. I don't make notes... just snap a few pics.