Gardening Journal

Spring is almost here! and we all know what we’ll be wanting to do when it does… GO OUTSIDE! and plant all kinds of beautiful flowers and delicious veggies and, and, and… you get my drift…

Last year was the first time I actually tried to do some serious gardening so I started small. A small garden in front, one bed in the back where I planted a raspberry cane (the fruit was awesome), grew a pepper plant which gave me beautiful peppers, and failed with the tomato plant because of some fungi. they are no fun guys…

This year I’m gonna be more of a daredevil! will broaden the scope and plant more stuff. I don’t expect to be 100% successful but I’ll take what I get. So I started to make a list… corn, watermelon, pepper again!, raspberries (hope the cane made it through winter), strawberries, tomatoes (I’ll have you!), iceberg lettuce, baby spinach, etc.

That’s a lot of work!… Well, yes. The thing that stopped me on my tracks for a few seconds was: how am I gonna keep track of all that? What if I forget that on X day I have to transplant? or thin, or when to start indoors or when to take outside? the list was getting longer. So i thought “hmm, maybe I should write all that stuff down in my calendar” but I needed more space to write more information. Why not just a calendar for gardening! even better, I should start a log for it. So I started my Gardening Ledger.

It’s easier to start it when you haven’t started your garden/veggie beds. But if you have already started, it’s still doable!

So, grab a binder (preferable a 2″) find a picture you like and put it in the front pocket for cover art. You can also use any other thing you can come up with to keep the sheets together, cardboard and twine if you are feeling green!

First thing I did was draw sketches of where were the existing plants and what they were, sketches of the layout of the different beds, really rough ones, even the scale was off. Something I found useful to keep in mind the scale was to take a picture of the house and print it out and draw on it what you are planning on planting.

Next thing was printing out a monthly calendar. Needless to say what it’s for! Write down when to sow what seeds, when to transplant what, when it’s time to harvest (if it’s not too obvious or you just wanna make sure you wait til it’s really ready), and you can even write down what the weather is like every day.

The seed packages give you some basic information in the back so you know when, what, and how much you need for anything, but you can admit you have lost your package or tossed it without a second thought after you sowed the seeds! (I know I have!) and then what? What I started doing was write down all that information in a separate sheet for the different flowers, veggies, etc. That way I know where it is at all times, and also if I find any more information, I can write it there, like a compilation.

I like taking pictures of what I create and do, really, who doesn’t?. So, on top of the information, another thing you can do is take pictures of your plants in their different stages. In this, it’s almost like a scrapbook, you can even take a leaf or flower, flatten it and dry it and glue it to the info sheet (Might make it too bulky though!).

For easy access to the information, you can get the tabbed separators and organize the info by type. Flowers, veggies, herbs, etc.

I think that’s a good start, anything else you would like to add or not do, that’s all up to you, after all its YOUR journal. Hope this sounds like a good idea (or at least a notion!) and works out for whoever is reading it.

Good luck and happy sowing

- Cyth

Advertisement