Garden Journaling

Keeping a Garden Journal

by Lynn Huntington

As we approach another season in the garden, here's a look at some of the benefits of keeping a garden journal—especially for vegetable gardens—and a few possibilities for journaling methods.

Many gardeners have already started their seeds, and if they are not already keeping notes this is an ideal time to document several key elements important to starting seeds. Even just a list in a notebook can provide valuable information in this season and for future gardening years.

For seed planting, I like to note the type of seed and from whom it was purchased or if saved from my own garden. Later I might note days until germination and then when it was transplanted or planted in the garden. The days get very busy when planting outside begins so for me the day I planted and the germination time are usually all I manage to record unless a seed does particularly poorly or exceptionally well.

If your garden starts with plants, then what you purchased, from whom—and then, as the year progresses, how this variety performs—are worth documenting.

I find the most valuable reason for keeping a journal is crop rotation. It is important to let your garden beds recover from aggressive feeders and to keep pests at bay; moving types of vegetable plants to a new location each year helps tremendously. For example, this year I will follow last year’s nightshade plants (tomato, potato, and others) with plants from a different family such as carrots or peas.

There are as many ideas for journaling as there are gardeners. I know gardeners who keep elaborate spreadsheets. If you are a data-driven person, you might enjoy a spreadsheet as a method for keeping a journal.

The decomposition notebooks sold at the Co-op are a great tool for a garden journal. A small version is best for carrying with you when visiting the gardens of friends. You can make notes of plants you like and record how the plant has performed for another gardener.

A few of the journals I've kept over the years.

Currently it has 9 beds. 1

2 7

3 4 8

5

6

9

It is a joy to work in this garden.

A pleasant place to sit as well.

If photography is your thing you can keep a visual catalog of your gardens on your computer or in the cloud with notes or keywords. Here is an example of how I used a printed photo in a paper journal to note an early riser in my 2020 garden.

I have even used my garden journal to try out some new paints to see if I liked them. No point in wasting a perfectly good sheet of paper.

Notes on crop rotation for my main kitchen garden are shown above and at left. Each bed is numbered and has a page of its own to keep track of what has been planted in it for the past decade.

Whatever method you use I hope you enjoy the process of recording your successes and failures in the garden, as I do, and it can help future years have more of the former and fewer of the latter. Happy gardening!