Oh yeah I saw that in the Lee Valley catalogue too, it's nice! I thought of getting one but I actually prefer to work on the computer now rather than paper.

I use an Excel spreadsheet I created, with tabs for Indoor sowing (species/common/date sown/sowing technique/date sprouted/germination rate/time to maturity/notes); Winter Sowing; Vegetable Garden Plan; Daylily Names (with map); Rose Names (with map); and Planting Plan (what goes in which garden). I guess I will also need to add a tab for when shrubs flower, I can never remember.

I just started doing this this year, it's the first year I have had enough indoor sowing and daylilies that I am worried about forgetting what's what.

The clothes size thing is funny! Thats there just to show you how much excercize gardening is. LOL!

I have been using a binder with spotty notes for the last 10 years.....I mostly list what I planted that year, and just a few other notes if I pulled something out or moved it or it didn't make it....stuff like that. I drew up plans and such....when I started...now I look at that and laugh.......its sooooooooo different 10 years later.

This year I have started a computer list.....and hopefully will add more info to that....although not so far. LOL!!! I plan on printing it at the end of the season and adding it to the binder....then if my computer crashes it won't matter. Gil, Don't forget to back up your info on cd or paper.

Sierra

A clothing size reminder chart, that is so weird, do us woman always have to be reminded of sizes all the time!
Maybe its for gardening related clothes such as gloves, rubber boots, clogs, army pants with all those pockets, apron, mosquito suits, you know that kind of stuff.
But yeah, I agree gardening is great exercise, keep track of how much you lose by the end of the seaon, but dang the beer and the burgers coincide! (he, he, he, I nearly wrote bugers, but I caught it. LOL!)

I've been keeping track of my garden for quite a while now, it first started out in a scribbler notebook then when we got the computer in '99 is when I switched over to the computer (Excel, MS Word) for all my sowings, plants in my garden, when the birds come back, what and what not to do for next year, and of course a WISH LIST, etc.

Sharon

LOL -- beer and burgers -- that's what we had last night! LOL

Yeah, that clothing thing sure is weird. I keep track of what sizes my kids are and keep that in my wallet but certainly wouldn't put that in a garden journal of all places! Too funny.

I have 2 binders. One where I jot down Tricks & Tips of all sorts, various gardening ideas, container gardening plans, favourite combinations. The other is a more day to day one where I keep notes on the weather, what & when things sprout/bloom, WS'ing notes, maps of the garden, that sort of thing.

Ang

Mine is a real odd collection. I have a binder in the kitchen, that holds my canning and freezing guides. It has a looseleaf sheet for each year with garden produce - Date started picking, # of packages & amount in each, Date ended. Also quick notes on first & last frosts, dry/hot/wet/cool season. A file folder in the office holds seed orders, and various scribblers - garden planting plans for veggies, indoor/winter sowing, seed inventory/orders. I like being able to take my books ouside with me, or downstairs to plant, or wherever. Besides I'm on the computer all the time at work. This year, I'm thinking a weekly photo record would be nice, but of course I haven't started it yet. I also keep a journal with a general record of farm happenings, cattle items, what I did today, etc. We consult that one a lot - "Dear, do you remember when we put the bulls out last year?"
Connie

I have a data base in the computer where I have different columns for the information I keep on each plant/shrub/perennial. Each plant's name, year purchased, height it grows, where I purchased it, price I paid, where it is planted in my yard, description of plant, color of flower, date the digital camera picture was taken, any special item of interest about the plant, zone and bloom time. I have printed off a master copy and that copy goes with me each time I drop in at a nursery. With the hundred's of plants/perennials I have in my yard I sometimes do not remember whether I have purchased the plant in the past or whether it was a plant I have thought about purchasing in the past.

I am always in the process of updating the list. For example, now I have irises blooming that have never bloomed for me, so into the computer goes that information also. I kept all the old maps of the yard that I made and am going through them double checking names of plants/perennials so that they are correctly labelled in my yard. It is a lot of work but it is worth it.

Brenda

My daughter gave me a four year journal several years ago. When it ran out, i made one of my own. I'm not really faithfull in recording things - good intentions, though! I find that my pictures are a good source of information, actually. For instance, the tulips in one garden are about a week to ten days earlier than they were last year, which is interesting considering that our weather is similar to last year's so far.

Actually this forum is a reasonably good record - I have consulted back to when I posted pics of things and when I planted seeds.

I also have an overstuffed file folder of labels, packages, tags, order forms, etc. that I have saved over the years. I even keep plant markers of annuals I liked. The folder's a little out of control by now!

Keeping records is so individual, eh? Lots of ideas here.

I like the idea of a binder for pics with pockets for packets (HA! Say that 10 times:^) ). I always lose my order forms in my paper shuffle and have a hard time remembering my veggie varieties or how many packets of ea. I used.

I've started a list of plants on the computer, too, to accompany me to the nursery. Sometimes I get so overwelmed by the decisions of what to get. It would help to think up plant combinations, too, when you have a list of what you already have.

Connie, I got a rangeman's journal for christmas last year and I used it fairly faithfully for cow stuff and weather. Then I kept forgetting whether I wrote something in there or on the calendar! Its going to be a challenge keeping up a garden journal and a ranch journal cause even though the clothing size chart made the cut, there doesn't seem to be a page for bull turn out dates!

What are you guys using to do up garden maps on the computer? Or are you drawing them out by hand?

Don't get discouraged with being unfaithfull to your journal, cause even one note in a month might just be the note you want to remember next year. Or sometimes it will jog my memory to other things. Like say I only wrote in August that it rained for a week, well that would remind me that my onions rotted that year and haying was late getting starting so I had time to dig some potatoes earlier than usual, or whatever. Who says a journal has to be every month or every day? Besides this journal I've started will last a few more years if I don't fill all the days in all the time.

Toots

PS: Connie, maybe I can turn the clothing size chart into a bull turn out date chart! That would be much more useful. Nice to meet a fellow Bovine Engineer on here:^)!

I put 50 or 60 zinc markers by various plants last spring, with the latin names laboriously written in permanent ink. Sometime in late summer I suddenly realized that most of the ink had disappeared on them, thanks to the sun. (My husband commented that they look like Braille, with the little dots!) I know the names of just about everything, but not always what plant went where. This is an example of why it would be great to be disciplined enough to do garden maps or charts or even to note it in a journal. I just never make the time. I'm learning and re-learning (and re-learning) that it would be worth the effort.

Toots, I draw laughable and labourious maps in Excel with the autoshapes tool. They are funny. I wish I could post them here so you could laugh. Larger plants get either a "spiky balloon" shape or a "puffy balloon" shape with their name written in, and smaller plants get a circle with a number corresponding to a legend. It is reasonably to scale. I only include perennials that require careful spacing, such as roses, peonies, delphs, lilies etc.

I have such a hard time remembering where I planned to plant stuff, once it arrives and I'm in a hurry to get it in the ground I no longer need to panic and end up with asparagus in the rose bed. (which happened BTW) :0)

Tootsie, I'll have to remember that I'm a Bovine Engineer the next time I'm up to my elbows in fresh, uncomposted "compost".
Connie