Not sure you would call it a journal/notebook, but I built a spreadsheet that I just add tabs to, for each year. I use it for variety, layout, greenhouse start dates, transplant dates, and then direct sow dates. For quick reference, I have tabs for a frost date chart, a germination chart, and an ideal temperature chart.

It's easy to get motivated to input information, early in the season. Not so much when it comes to making note of performance.

Yeah, I have a spreadsheet, too, and I get the planting dates, but nothing on harvest or performance. I take pictures with my tablet once a week, so at least I can go back to see what was growing when.

I have a much better system this year that I put together. Last year's was too detailed too many pages and I didn't keep it up.

I have a few informational charts in the front. Then I have the bulk arranged by months. Anytime I do something garden related I write the date and what I did. It works well for me and I can transfer harvest info later if I want to a master log but this way everything is according to dates. It gives me a general idea of what to expect next year. I keep track of Temps, soil Temps, and rainfall too. It's the only part of my journal I actually kept up with last year. The other seed starting transplanting harvesting logs were too much.

Hmm, I'm seeing some great ideas to add to or replace sections of mine.

Fertilizer/feeding and or mulch applications would be good to track. Or at the very least, set up a rough schedule to remind me when it's time. I'm currently experimenting with a couple of smart phone apps that will set reminders.

I'm seriously considering repurposing some of the columns on my main template. Some are just a duplication of info, I can quickly get from one of the other charts I have attached.

Wish I could figure a way to set my spreadsheet up to auto-populate information from the Mesonet. Until then, I utilize the Mesonet mostly for decisions on when to plant, but having access to track trends and historically data on their website has pretty much replaced my desire to muddle thru my limited Excel knowledge.

Kim, I can relate to your reference to the possibility of being too detailed and having too many pages. I know it doesn't sound like it, but I am constantly looking for ways to pare things down, yet keeping what I consider to be valuable.

Once I get my canning/preserving 'cookbooks' organized the way I want, I'll likely turn my attention to a gardening journal. At this time, I have 3 ea 1" binders with the plastic sleeve dividers, each divider contains a minimum of two recipes. Once I get a tabbed index set up, I'll feel like I'm finished. Another binder is loaded with food safety and canning information from various universities and the NCHFP. Oh, I forgot about another one dedicated to curing and smoking of various meats and sausages!

I spent years working in the paperless world, in which we killed enough trees to account for a couple of rainforests. The habit of using hardcopies for backup and official documentation is deeply ingrained. Being able to quickly jot down notes and reminders in a journal sounds more appealing than having to run in, wash my hands and jump on the computer. Who knows, I might even take the time to preserve some of what happens after planting to be used in future years?

I really got excited about setting up binders this year since i no longer have Internet and computer. I still have a ways to go but I printed off an awesome preservation planner and filled it all in and will be gathering recipes and ideas to put in there also. I have put together a market binder too so I can keep track of ideas I get from people.

Oh and in my main gardening binder I made a sheet for each crop and will keep notes there as well (I hope )

Probably won't work for you, but I found this gardening book that has space for me to put notes. It only has limited space for 3 years, but by then I should know what needs done and when, and can create my own.

What's it called?

I kept a journal like Jen described in Texas in the 1980s and early 1990s but mostly just used it to note planting dates, bloom dates of perennials, rainfall, and high and low temperatures. It helped me learn the rhythm of what bloomed when, what time was warm enough for planting, etc. The one I bought was sold in the Journal section of big chain bookstores and had a green cover. I really liked it, but only jotted things down in it sporadically. The busier I got, the less I remembered to get out the journal and write things down.

I kept a detailed journal in a spiral notebook for maybe the first 4 or 5 years here, but as the garden got bigger and I got busier, I gave up trying to jot things down. If the choice was between being outdoors playing in the dirt or indoors writing about playing in the dirt, well....being outdoors playing in the dirt won out every time. I always noted the dates I sowed seeds, when they spouted, recorded high and low temperatures and precipitation amounts, the dates of the first harvest of each type of crop, etc.

Having given up on keeping a real journal, then I began using a standard calendar, jotting down the briefest of notes on each page. I did really well with than in January and February when it was mostly too cold and too wet to be out in the garden, but less well in the months when I could be outside. See the pattern here? Nowadays it is all in my head. I think I remember things pretty well after gardening here in the same location for so long.

Mostly what I have learned from attempts to journal and keep track of things is that the garden performance follows the weather.....the dates that things happen in a cold, wet, miserable winter/spring are not at all the same as the dates when those things happen in a warm, dry, enjoyable winter/spring. So, what I do in the garden and when I do it is based on what the weather is doing and what I've learned from experience that I can do in those weather conditions. That's why I plant based more on soil temperatures, air temperatures and such, and not based on calendar dates. I try to ignore the calendar as much as possible because our weather can vary wildly from one year to the next and that's probably the best lesson I learned from the years when I found time to keep notes.

I do the same thing with canning, attempting to keep a detailed and accurate canning log of each batch canned, with the jars labeled accordingly. It works for the first 2 or 3 weeks until I get too busy and it falls by the wayside as well. I still label the jars from each batch and date them, but I don't manage to keep a written log of all the batches.

I have seen that and almost bought one last year. I was afraid I wouldn't use it.

I also have a calendar on the wall that I write everything I am supposed to do and when. So far I am behind!

Oh my canning journal in the past was pictures of each batch. Lol

I bought it a few years ago for the garden information, but never used it. We just moved so I'm starting over and I wanted to make notes for future reference. So far I've just added notes on when I can plant things not already listed, some of Dawn's advice on different things, and when I planted seeds.

I have a whole separate binder for notes and one section is labeled Dawn; ) This corner of GW has motivated me to be a successful gardener and just keep trying no matter what. Not everything works out perfectly. I write down all the stuff like how my red cabbage refuses to sprout. Seed must have been old. I have to write stuff down. Last year's notes helped me so much with planning especially spacing issues.

I
simply keep a folder on my computer called "gardennotes."
Every January I start a new file. This year's file is 2016garden.doc.
I use a regular word processor, which at this time is Apache Open
Office Writer (it's free and good). In order to make finding and
opening the file easier, after doing this for decades and
accumulating files, I generally place an empty space at the start of
this year's garden notes file. That way, when opening the file, I go
to the folder and hit the space bar first. The current file is
automatically selected.

An
entry is generally something along this line:

2/3/2016
Planted two packets (about 14' of wide row) of Cobham Improved Marrow
Parsnip.

But
I include any information or observations I believe might be useful
in the future. For instance, when I start tomato and pepper seeds
this year, I am noting the batch (year) I use. This is because
I save my own seed and often have multiple batches in my seed stock.
If I should have a problem with cross pollination I will then know
which batch to avoid in the future and, have an idea of what batch I
should try next year.

I
find that my note keeping gets less disciplined as the season
progresses. Also, I love to go through the present year's file,
between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and fill in observations; things
like days to maturity. I will have noted when I started something,
when I made my first harvest of that variety, and when I got ripe
seed. But I have to manually calculate the days.

One
other observation. Over the years I have found that my memory about
certain things can "morph." I will have it in my head that
such and such a variety performed a certain way under specific
conditions or some other thing like that. Then, when I actually look
it up, I'll be surprised to discover that it wasn't exactly how I
remembered it!

The
longer I garden, the more attached I am getting to certain varieties.
Three years of grow out is a minimum for really knowing a variety.
More years are better. This limits how many new varieties I take on.

George

George,

As usual, I'm a little smarter now. Thanks!

Johnny

George I wish I were good enough at the computer. I type so slow that I could weed the whole garden in the same time it takes to write about it.

I have a spiral notebook that I have kept for a few years now. Before spring and fall, I jot down what I want to order/plant and sketch out my little garden area - a little dream garden. Then, I make my actual order list (and a list of 'I want to try this next year!") Then I have a page where I try to sketch out/list what I actually plant (where and when.) Lastly, I have a notes page where I try to comment on how things worked (or didn't.) It's really brief but it's usually enough to jog my memory. I use computer documents for lots of things but for me, nothing beats handwritten notes as a way to commit things to my memory. Also handy because I can haul the darn thing into the back yard with me. :)

I have an old folding lap desk thing I put papers and pens pencil and markers and make my notes in the garden. Then when i get home while I eat dinner I put it in my binder. Since I got really sick a few years ago my memory took a hit and has been slower to recover. Lol. And I have an addiction to paper.... there I said it out loud. Same as my seed addiction.

Well, Mr. Mauser, my mentor when I was a teen, kept all his records on his calendar and all his calendars on a shelf in the basement. It worked for him!

When I first started keeping notes, back in the early 80s, I kept a 3X5" card file. I dug that up last year and was amazed how much information I had forgotten, but which was still on those cards!

I hope you publish those cards some day.

Johnny