Today brings the fifth installment to the Planning Your Vegetable Garden Series here at Veggie Gardener. This series has covered topics such as my definition of a garden plan, how to collect some information for garden planning, how to use a great garden planning tool, and how to purchase the seeds for your garden.
This installment to the series will discuss how to start a garden journal, and some of the items you should include in your garden journal. Let’s begin our garden journals, shall we?
What Is A Garden Journal?
A garden journal is basically a personal diary that you keep about the progression of your vegetable garden – from the time you prepare the garden for planting, to sowing the first seeds, to the final harvest. You can think of a garden journal as your notebook to your day-to-day gardening activities, and the progression of your garden throughout the growing season. A garden journal is almost an essential part of growing a successful vegetable garden.
What To Include In The Garden Journal
What you would want to include in your garden journal is – everything about your vegetable garden. Here is a list of things you could include in your journal:
The vegetables in your garden – including the species and cultivar of each plant.
The spacing you used when planting.
How you fertilized and type of fertilizer.
How you watered the plants (too much, not enough?).
Any pests that you may have found and possible solutions for control.
Any disease issues that you may encounter and possible solutions for control.
Soil conditions.
How well a vegetable produced.
- Describe your gardening successes and failures. List what you did right for your successes and what you may have done wrong for failures.
This is certainly not everything you could include in your garden journal, this is just the short list. You want to try to include all the major points of your vegetable plants. Also, try to be as detailed as possible about how your vegetables produced, and what you did to get those results. This will be key when you go back to review your garden journal the next season. What you put in your garden journal this year will help to refresh your memory next year.
What To Use As A Garden Journal
You can use whatever you are comfortable using as a garden journal. You can use a spiral notebook, a three-ring binder, or a computer program. You could use a combination of these as well. I actually use a spiral notebook and a Microsoft Office application
If you use a three-ring binder or a spiral notebook, I suggest you use graph paper. Graph paper makes it very easy to draw pictures, or sketch the garden spaces. For more information on using a three-ring binder, check out Start Keeping A Garden Journal Today.
There are also online tools that you can use for documenting your garden. One very nice online tool to use is Folia.com. Folia.com is a free community site where you can track your plants, track your gardens, and produce an online journal of your garden. One feature that is great about folia is that you can follow other gardeners and track the progression of their gardens as well. You can also share your garden journal with others, and talk about what’s happening in each other’s garden. Greg Holdsworth wrote a very interesting article about Folia.com on vegetablegardener.com.
Start Your Garden Journal Today
Today is the best time to start your garden journal to get a jump on the upcoming gardening season. By starting it now, you can begin tracking your vegetable garden from the very beginning. You can also share your garden journal with family and friends. Keeping a garden journal is another avenue of enjoying your vegetable gardening in a whole new way.
Do you keep a garden journal? Please tell me about it!
If you missed the other installments of the Planning Your Vegetable Garden Series, here they are:
Planning Your Vegetable Garden – What Is A Garden Plan?
Planning Your Vegetable Garden – Gathering Some Information
Planning Your Vegetable Garden – Using A Garden Planning Tool
Planning Your Vegetable Garden – Purchasing Your Seeds
More Fantastic Vegetable Gardening Articles:
I keep a garden journal. Mine is just a few sheets of white ‘printer paper’ folded in half and stapled. (I don’t know why I folded the paper, it could be better used full size, I guess it’s easier to tote small… but anyway…
) I have made about 4 or so like this. Whenever I run out of space I just make a new one. I write everything down in them; purchases (or gifts) of plants or seed, when and where I got soil amendments (like manure or hay), when I added it, what chores I did that day, when I water, when I started seed, when they came up, etc. It’s always a good thing because if something did really well you’ll know when you planted it so you can plant it again that same time and it may do good again. If something did especially bad, you’ll have record of that, too. (Maybe try a different time of year, etc) I also staple empty seed envelopes to the back page for reference or for the pretty photography. I could go on and on (I tend to ramble…) but yes a good journal is a good thing to have.
Hi Sayward – Thank you for sharing about your garden journal. I am a firm believer in keep a good garden journal chocked full of everything you do in the vegetable garden. It can come in very handy when you are planting or harvesting the following year. I’m glad you commented, because now I have found your blog
Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you here again soon!
Tee