I have an Excel file that has my garden plan for each season on it and also tally sheets with rough records of harvests (useful for yields and also for how early/late varieties were ready).

But the thing I use most of all, especially when I'm in a hurry and just want to record something before I forget, is a spreadsheet calendar (my own template), one sheet per month. I record when I did things, but also use it to plan what I will have to do in the future. Since I have a small garden that I crop in all four seasons, and hate to have unproductive space, that's really helpful for me.

For four or five years I've also had a blog, viewable only by me, to which I've uploaded photos and kept written records, but I can rarely be arsed to use it any more. Takes too long, and if posts aren't tagged properly it's hard to search for past information as needed.

I keep an Excel spreadsheet with tabs for my front yard, back yard, and seeds started. The yard tabs have layouts by square feet to keep track of what's planted where, since I'm constantly forgetting to label things, and then I have blank pages for keeping notes directly on each yard layout sheet for recording things like germination, watering, spraying, etc. I'm not super duper thorough, but I do try to get everything I can entered into the sheets so that next year I'll have a better idea of what to do when.

For recording my harvests, I just keep a sheet of paper on the fridge. That way, after bringing in the harvest and weighing it, I only have to walk 2 steps to record my tally, as opposed to having to remember it all to be entered in on the computer. At some point, I'll get that on a spreadsheet too, but since my harvests always seem to suck, I don't have that many pages to enter yet. :P

Oh, yeah, I forget to mention the intermediate step - scribble information on scrap of paper. : )

This is fraught with peril, however. I recently scrawled out a detailed plan of which seedlings currently growing on the deck will be planted in which soon-to-be-vacant areas of garden - and then accidentally threw out the piece of paper. Oops.

I'd like to say I use a fancy record keeping system, but I don't. In the beginning of the season, I use an excel spreadsheet for the order of planting based on the frost date.

Then I plant 9 square feet of things when their time comes. I put the date and the plant on a plastic tag I get from the garden store.

When things get their first true leaves, I plant another 9 sq. foot patch. And keep going this way through the season. If something doesn't germinate, I plant something else there when I need the spot.

When I plant, I plant peas or beans in the worst looking patch of soil, or in an area I've had problems with flea beetles. And I usually put beans or peas in where I took something else out.

I do keep a simple journal of the work I do each day. But I never look at it.

Fancy systems are fun for their own sake, and I guess there is a lot of use for them.

Another thing I do is take pictures pretty often. These also serve as a good journal. At one time, I was putting them in a word file, but I'd rather go out and putter in the garden than play with the computer.

I keep meaning to carry a small notebook with me to jot down ideas, but never remember to.

I use my Genealogy program as I already do genealogy so no extra cost plus I can create any name-Place-Fact I want or need and all my photos are with that one Name which I enjoy as each time I go there I can see a photo of that plant also. I use Roots Magic 4, but Roots Magic 4 Essentials is a free download. The only problem I found was once I placed the photo in the program I couldn't move it from a file in my photo program to another without causing a problem, but then FTM just might be able to save it directly in the program and not in a photo file.

Thanks! These are great ideas. Keep them coming.

I think I want both a computer record and a written/printed journal (having been through one complete computer meltdown where all my files and backups were lost, I have a fondness for a paper record). I just created a daily journal on 3-hole-punched paper so that I can put it into a binder. I like the idea that I can add photos and extra pages if I need it. I can add printouts of my Excel sheets.

I know record keeping can seem tedious, especially when you can be outside in the yard, but I am hoping it will help me to avoid repeating mistakes, and chronical my successes. I do some dog training, and record keeping is helpful there too. Without it, it's hard to know whether you've made progress from day to day.

Keep the ideas coming!

Like everyone else, I also use Excel spreadsheets for more permanent data. For ongoing daily data such as trial & errors, reminders, logs, etc, I use Outlook calendar. Once a month or so, I review information on the outlook and cut & paste whatever I think worth saving into the spreadsheet. Once a season, I cut & paste whatever in the spreadsheet that's worth saving into a word file with a table of permenant calendar.

Since this is an ongoing process, I made the mistake of not bothering to back up thinking I'd remember everything since I visit the garden everyday. Not so! About two years ago, my hard drive crashed and lost all the data. Funny how memory always failed me at the time I needed it most. From then on, I designated a specific location for Outlook files (instead of the default), and back up the Excel and word files on a regular basis.

I use the computer all day long at work, but I keep garden records the old fashioned way. Each year I buy an engagement calendar from CVS, Walgreens, etc., and I jot down my daily or weekly doings. I keep track of rain fall, temperatures, first and last frost dates, plantings, when I pick first veggies, etc. I keep them each year and refer back to them often. They don't take up much room on a book shelf and it's nice to flip through and think about past years and gardens.

Screw them spreadsheets and 'puters. I use a small notebook and give a page to each bed (more or less) and write dates I planted, varieties and other notes about its success or failure. Some beds don't get a whole page if they get a long term crop. Other beds get succession planted every few weeks so need more writing room.

In the back of the book I keep a section on what I should be planted every 2 weeks during growing season. And also a section on fruit trees ripening dates.

Cheap 3 ring binder. Separate page for permanent plants [trees, roses, etc.] telling when bought and where, where planted and a yearly update of pruning, fertilizing. Plus any notes of bugs, harvest, et.

Vegetable garden pages ... draw a map of yard on fold out pages taped together ... shows where/when planted.

Then, a 'diary' section, whenever I do or observe something noteworthy. I underline key words in the narative, so will be easy to scan through in later years to find out just when such & such happened.

This kind of set up has served me well over the years.

Oh borderbarb reminded me of something I do when keeping notes. Rather than typing it out blog-style or as a narrative, I put down the date, then the action (e.g. HARVESTED), and then sort of list things that the action applies to, and the quantity of seeds planted, if that's the action, so my entries look like this:

7.27.10 - SEEDED, raised bed 1: Blue Lake bush beans (40)

Each action gets a new line. Then anything I have to say about any of those events, or anything I have to say in general gets added below. The notation for which bed things are planted in correlates with the garden layout spreadsheet that has the information in each square foot's box, so I have the names/qtys of items planted in 2 different places, just in case I forget to update it somewhere.

The only record I keep are plat drawings for where the different varieties of melons, watermelons, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and tomatoes are located so I can evaluate the best results.

I have been gardening so long that I remember pretty much concerning dates...like April 1, 1954 I sowed lettuce.

I use the computer. Here's what I do:

1. Excel spreadsheet to layout my garden plan.
2. Excel spreadsheet to track varieties, seed start dates, plant out dates, DTM, estimated vs. actual 1st harvest dates, last harvest date, harvest amounts. Here is where I also note if I need to order seeds for a particular variety for next year.
3. I also keep a historical record in an Excel spreadsheet comparing year by year.
4. I create all the Excel spreasheets as worksheets so they are all together in one file.
5. Word Document for my Garden Journal. Here I put weather info, pest or disease problems, new techniques or varieties IÂd like to try and my general ramblings.
6. I create new files each year then put them in the year folder with all the pictures for that year.

I used to use a new notebook each year but found I tended to be less diligent than I am with the computer. I will admit though I do take a scribble pad to the garden especially when I am picking numerous varieties of the same vegetable.

OK so I'm just a tad compulsive...can you imagine how I felt when I lost a couple years worth of data due to a computer crash and a bad backup?