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The only constant about a garden is change. It’s not just the sweeping changes from winter to spring, but smaller differences you see week to week. I am sometimes impressed by how a patch of my garden can shift over the course of even just a day. With all that change, it’s impossible to keep track of not just how the garden looks, but how you felt about how the garden looked at that time. Feelings aren’t to be discounted, because they are precisely what you’ll want to recall at the end of the season, when you make decisions about changes for next year. I am constantly making mental notes about particular plants or parts of the yard as I work, but remembering them all is impossible.
A garden journal, however you choose to organize it, is the best place to keep all these observations and notes this year so you can refer back to them in future years. My journal is the single most valuable gardening tool I have.
How to organize a garden journal
Actually, how you organize your garden journal doesn’t really matter. The goal is to simply have a place to record all your important observations as the seasons go by. If you are someone who enjoys a traditional organizer, there are plenty of fancy options for planners or journals with daily prompts and sections. But if you’re like me, you just need blank paper and a pen. There are tons of simple journals with gridded pages so you can record thoughts and sketches easily. This is the perfect excuse to go walk around a stationary store and find a journal that feels good in your hands and gets you excited about gardening.
The journal lives inside, rather than in the garden, and I find that keeping it near my couch is helpful because I can reach for it anytime something occurs to me. Because it’s sitting nearby, I’ll sometimes force myself to sit and think about the state of the garden and make some notes. The proximity of the journal means I can grab it when ordering seeds or making other planning decisions.
What to record in your journal
You’ll settle into a system that works for you of recording relevant information. What I’ve found most useful is just allowing the journal to be freeform, but I’ll start an observation page for each season. In summer, this may simply be where I remind myself that a specific pea I planted tasted badly, or “next year, more melons!” It’s where I note which areas of the garden need more color, or need a plant moved or divided. Things like, “the elderberries overhang neighbor’s fence in August” pop up in observations, or notes about new trellises that I’d like. If I find a plant I like in the nursery, I’ll make a note to find seeds for it next year.
Because I prefer to use my journal in a freeform manner, it’s also where I sketch out plans for garden boxes or trellises I’ll build. I sometimes make loose layout plans in the journal for my garden beds.
My journal is where I record how much compost or mulch I use over the season so I can plan for next year, or how much fertilizer was put down, where, and when it was applied. I often note big plantings, such as trees or shrubs so I can refer back if needed. Sometimes I leave notes about what was grown, like “four tomato plants = 18 pints of tomatoes” so I know how much to grow next year.
In the thick of winter, as I’m planning my summer garden, my journal is where I’ll make a list of all the things I want to grow and begin breaking it down into smaller varieties and where I’ll buy the seeds.
Each year, I record when my tulips finally pop open, as well as the snapdragons, and when corn and sunflowers sprout. These are landmarks for the weather that help me track how my garden responds to the seasons. You’ll find those benchmarks for your own garden, too.
A written journal can work alongside a visual diary
Keeping these written notes isn’t the only way I record what’s happening in the garden. I often take pictures, as well, as I move through the garden. These images work alongside the journal, as a reference. When it comes time to plant tulips next year, I won’t be able to remember where they need to go to accommodate the ones in the ground already, but a picture can aid in placement. I likely won’t remember how the bean vines looked next year when I’m building a new trellis, but I can refer to pictures. If I’m worried my tomatoes have the same fungus as last year, pictures I can look back at will help me decide.
Once you have a journaling system in place, you’ll discover how incredibly useful having these observations close by can be in maintaining your garden.
