UNEXPECTED BLESSINGS

Unexpected blessings found in keeping a garden journal

STORY & PHOTOS BY LAUREN GRAVES

If you ask any longtime farmers to give you their best advice for a successful harvest, they will likely tell you to keep basic records of your growing efforts. Basics means things like when it rained and how much, first and last frosts, what was planted and when and how it all fared. They will tell you there is no better almanac than the one from your own back yard.

And that is exactly what you get over time as you keep basic records. It’s like magic, building a treasure-trove of data, one note at a time. That’s how I began keeping a garden journal myself – just writing down the basics. By keeping these simple records, you’re keeping an eye on your garden, what is happening in it and what needs attention. But what developed for me as I started jotting down the basics is that I became more curious and aware of everything going on in my entire backyard world, so I began writing down more than the basics, as well as adding pictures. Pretty soon, I was noting in my garden journal, along with pictures, things like the first daffodil sighting and the day the first hummingbird appeared. I started becoming involved in the entire ecosystem of my backyard world. My garden journal became a way to give a place of prominence to simple observations in my backyard world, as well as take care of my garden.

Though I could use this article to give you tips on how to keep a garden journal according to me, I would rather tell you about a phenomenon I witnessed through many years of presenting workshops and speaking engagements while promoting my Perpetual Gardening Record Book.

There was a story I told at every event in which I was a vendor, whether it was a local community art festival or a national trade show. It was a story that resonated with everyone, even people who weren’t gardeners, but everyone knew someone who was and how much it meant to them to be in their garden.

The story was this: It was only after my grandmother passed away that we found her gardening notes, all written in her sweet handwriting. I pulled quotes from those notes The Past and The Future The notes in your garden journal could benefit the gardens and used them as the inspirational guide throughout my product. It was of future generations a threshold straight as much as they help to the heart of a your own gardening gardener.adventures. At one of the first

big garden events where I was a vendor, a woman heard that story and said with tears in her eyes, “I’ll take one, and I hope someone in my family finds mine one day.” From that moment on, that story was my connection with thousands of people.

Therein lies the real treasure of keeping a garden journal. Through all these years of being out there speaking to the importance of keeping garden records and journals, so many dear people have whipped out their garden journas to show to me. Some are using mine, many are not; they just know I will appreciate this thing that they are so very proud of, and I do. In fact, I love it. Every one of these garden journals seems like a beautiful piece of art to me. Many have dirt smudges and water stains, but all of them are in that person’s very unique handwriting, handwriting that is immediately recognizable to anyone who knows and loves that gardener.

After all these years of promoting my Perpetual Gardening Record Book, as well as having the pleasure and delight of seeing so many homemade garden journals, I can say with absolute certainty, there is no best way to keep a garden journal. Just do it! Not only will your garden respond to this level of love and attention, but also you will be amazed at what this small, simple task does for you.

And speaking from my personal experience time and time again, beginning with us finding my grandmother’s gardening notes, you cannot imagine the profound, heartfelt and tender effect your personal garden journal will have on anyone who sees it.

My favorite thing about a garden journal is that it is so much more than a backyard almanac, and more than the gardener’s unique handwriting. It is a diary. It is that gardener’s daily, private way to give a place of prominence to all the seemingly small but miraculous events that they witness and are stewards of in their gardens and backyard worlds. I’ve heard so many times from customers that no one in their family ‘gets’ why they are so into their gardens. I usually give them a wink and a smile and say, “One day they will.”

Lauren Graves is the owner of CabinTiger Studio and grew up in the Lake Martin area. She is a an avid gardener, photographer, workshop presenter and keynote speaker at gardening events. Though she lives in Colorado, she loves making extended visits to the place of her Lauren Graves roots. Email Below: A garden journal is perfect her at lauren@ for keeping basic records cabintiger.com. about care and harvests for future reference; Facing page, clockwise from above left: Note dates and conditions for the arrival of each seaosn; Graves developed a gardening record book for her notes and photos; Keep records on the amount of rainfall your garden receives to monitor the health of the plants; Her grandmother's gardening notes had a profound impact on Graves.