You must enjoy looking back through the journal too. Great idea.

I haven't written in my journal much at all this year, and now that winter is upon us, I wish I had. My favorite time to write in the journal is early A.M., even though I'm not normally much of a morning person. It goes well with my morning coffee ;-)

Another good thing to note- what has popped up in spring. I walk around the yard and list things under the heading- what's come up now, and the date. This taught me that Hostas take a really long time to come up in spring, and I shouldn't assume they are dead if they aren't up with everything else. Lots of other lessons to learn in that journal too.

And they are a great read, especially when the garden catalogs start arriving, and the snow is two foot deep.

Very good idea. When I buy plants there is usually a tag with information that eventually gets lost. Those tags could go in a journal too. I also regret not keeping notes. This year I will so I can know when the plants go to seed, when they fruit, how long they blossom. Funny how the details blurr in memory. I have plants I want to ID and I can't honestly say when they started to bloom, or for how long

I get made fun of for keeping a garden journal. I knew I wasn't alone!!
I have been keeping a garden journal for many years and love reading it in the dead of winter when I am longing for spring. I note all of my new perennials, shrubs, their habit etc. That way I can always look it up when I can't remember the name of a plant or shrub.

It is really fun reading prior years too, which really illustrates how far I have come with our landscape.

I grow and experiment a lot with annuals and make note of what I liked with what, what looked good all season long and what looked scraggly in flower beds and containers, what combinations I liked and didn't like, suggestions for the next year, etc. It is sooooo easy to forget after a long winter.
I had my girlfriends wedding in our yard last summer and I relied alot on my journal to anticipate what would be in bloom where, and where I needed to add some annuals for quick fill in color.

I also subscribe to a lot of gardening magazines and when I see a great plant combination that I might like to try or a project that I might want to build, I note the magazine, issue and page number so I can easily find it again.

I try to write in it at least once a week during the gardening season, usually after my garden chores, or after work when I appreciate the beauty and solitude so much.

I have kept a journal for a long time and it has been a wonderful joy and asset.
Mary

I keep my "journals" (getting on for 30 years' worth) in 3-ring binders. Use those plastic pages (meant for photos) for photos as well as seed packets, labels, etc. Use [the open-at-the-top kind] heavy-weight page protectors as a catch-all for stuff including order forms, sketchs and ideas, and the page of the catalog that describes the plant (this is really handy when you are trying to remember just how tall "X" is supposed to grow). Page protectors are also great for holding diagrams of flower beds and lists of planting/blooming times.

You can do the same thing online, with a blogging site, or by making your own website. I do this, and scan ALL my plant labels, seed packets, etc. It really is handy. :)

Kristina

I keep my information in my notepad and/or metapad and have one file for all orders over internet or mail orders with confirmation numbers, dates, what ordered and then follow up with how the plants do.

I now order mostly from Bluestone in Ohio as I discovered that even with smaller plants (less cost) they more than make up for it first /second year of growth and they are very kind about replacements! BUT THIS journal really is a good idea!!

These are really good ideas! I like your ideas about plant pictures and tags.

What I have been doing is keeping a journal in a notebook (A cute one with flowers!) of what I plant, what is blooming, what critters I'm seeing , etc. And because I start so many seeds and cuttings every year, i keep a small seperate notebook for that purpose. Then, I have a large three-ring binder, in which I keep info about all the herbs, flowers, and vegetables I'm growing, so I don't have to dig through all my books. I also keep lists, like companion plants, butterfly plants, drought-tolerant plants, plants that I want to look for, etc. I have a section that has my general growing info (last frost, first frost, when to plant vegetables), and I keep a section that is just garden ideas I get from magazines, Garden Web, other people. I also have a section that is growing tips and suggestions. I have sections for herbal crafts, recipes, etc. Last year I made a list of the things that did exceptionally well, and the things that didn't do so well, and I'm going to keep doing that. I use tab dividers to keep it all organized. This is helping me alot, as I am only a second-year gardener, and it gets too hard to rummage through all my books looking for growing information.

I like the three-ring binder for plant information because I can keep adding to it, and keep it organized, too. Last year, I wrote everything down in my gardening journal, and then it was hard to add to pages, since I had gone on to make other entries. Also had to hunt for info I had put in there.

I don't keep a proper gardening journal (I should, I know...) because I'm just not good at doing stuff like that on a schedule. But on a related topic, I have kept a gardening scrapbook for years. It started as a manilla folder full of gardening articles when I was in high school and grew from there. When I was newly married I decided to start cutting and pasting the articles into a notebook, 20 years before scrapbooking became all the rage. It's amazing how many bits and pieces of gardening info are published in newspapers, pennysavers and a variety of magazines, not to mention the internet. I scavange papers and magazines from work, in addition to the ones I receive at home. Anything I want to save gets cut out and glued to the appropriate page by plant or topic. My little notebook has grown to 4 large 3 ring binders and I'm overdue to expand to a 5th. I highlight important points. The information is more varied than in my referance books, and I don't know how often I've resorted to it. I work on it a little at a time, mainly at night or in the winter, when I can't garden anyway.

I should keep better records too but rarely do. As a shorthand method I'll record most vital info on my annual wall calendar and transfer that info to each new calendar every January. There by most important dates are there in front of me daily so I won't forget, such as, planting times for each veggie, seed starting times indoors, 1st garden pests appearences, fruit tree trimming, fall garden starting dates, successional planting (early, mid, late corn, etc). This keeps me on track so that those "windows" of opportunity" don't slip by. vgkg

Here's some journal help for anyone interested.

Here is a link that might be useful: printable garden journal pages

Thanks,socks!

I use my camera and computer as my basic gardening journal tool. For Example, I just took pictures of my daffodils in bloom from my upstairs bathroom and then used my computer to add notes to the picture telling what I wanted to do., ie. divide and move daffodils. I just drew arrows where I wanted to move them to, once the foliage dies down. Used the cloning tool on my computer to show how it would look once I do thatin the "After" picture. I use my camera to take pictures of every magazine article I want to keep (put them on CD's also). Since I take all of my "breaks" at my computer after working in the garden, I just enter into relavant daily notes into my computer Garden Journal (can also add pictures there either from the Internet (cut and paste all info gleaned from sites when I purchase a new plant to describe it, maintenance tips, etc.) I also create CD's with a year's worth of pictures and use a slide show program which enables me to add notes, music, etc. During the winter or when just wanting to review the garden, I slip in the CD and enjoy the gardening journey. I have also made copies of the CD to send to my sister who can't visit.
Here is an example
{{gwi:293683}}
{{gwi:293684}}

Pauline

I have never been much of a journalist but last year I finally started a gardening/homesteading journal. It's in an ordinary bound composition book and is threatening to turn into a monster as it grows larger and more in-depth. I wish I'd started it three years ago when we first found Dun Hagan as there are some small details of that first year that I've simply forgotten, but the major stuff I managed to get down on paper.

My exact style is under steady evolution, but at this point in time I have stuff broken down by general plant types - blackberries, blueberries, citrus, pears, azaleas, camellias, daylillies, etc., and some other general categories like fertilizers and soil amendments, grounds general, equipment and so on. Just recently created a fertilization chart so that I can keep more accurate track of when I fertilized what using what sort of fertilizer without having to go through pages of notes. No more double feeding or skipping one because I misremembered. In the back I have an envelope I keep purchase receipts in, mostly for perennials like fruit plants, ornamentals and so on and important stuff that I may need the receipt for later.

It's a nuisance at times to keep up with the thing but I have so much stuff going on now that if I don't start keeping a written record I'll start forgetting important details for sure and then will begin to make stupid mistakes. I make enough of those as it is!

It is nice as Meldy_nVA mentions to go back and read old entries when you can't get out to do anything or just don't have the oomph to do it. Pretty soon now I'll begin experimenting with budding and grafting my own trees so keeping written records will be even more important then.

Anyone who does more than occasional gardening ought to keep some sort of written records of what they've done.

.....Alan.