Garden Journal

Experienced gardeners tell you that you should keep a garden journal. They say that you can go back and figure out mistakes or patterns when stuff happens in the garden . . . good and bad. That helps you keep a better garden.

Following that advice, I started a garden journal online one a few months ago.  Really, its been a stumbling effort.  I've already made some key omissions.  Like when I failed to record the first frost dates of the season last month.  The journal so far is only organized by chronological post date.  That makes it hard to see patterns.  This problem may be mitigated by using Labels or keywords so one can use to sort the blog posts.   

Here are some of the concepts that ought to be included in an effective garden journal.  

• Weather, including the frost and heat dates.  

Valuable and necessary information for any less cold tolerant plants.  Not only should you write about historical information that actually happens, but you ought to be thinking about the first and last frost dates, and the heat stretches, as they approach so you can watch and observe their affects.  Record rainfall, wind, and temperature patterns.  Analyze the affects of the energies in your climate.  Write about what happens to plants in the peak heat of summer?

• To Do lists.

Back in the Navy we called it stayinig ahead of the airplane.  Give yourself some to do lists ahead of time so you are not caught with your pants down. Pay attention to dates.  Incorporate your calendar into your planning so you are reminding yourself of the deadlines.  Gardening seems much about managing deadlines and time lines.  

Figure out when your plants need to be pruned, divided, or moved. 

• Seeds and performance.

What kind of performance do the best in your soil and climate?  Which plant can tolerate bugs and heat, etc.  Figure out which of the tomato plants thrive. Then, save those seeds and plant those varieties.

• Plant Types

Hone in on each of the plants and study them in detail--dates of germination, appearance of blooms, and fruit, harvest dates.   How do plants do around other varieties.  Use labels and keywords for each plant so you can sort posts.  Incorprate the information into your plans.

• Supplements

Record the kind of amendments to the soil were made.  Composted horse manure in one area.  Worm castings or tea in another.   Chicken manure compost's affect here.  

• Bed Structure

Raised beds, woody beds, trellised beds, etc.

• Lighting and shadows and boggy places

Watch the energy flows on your place.  Measure how the sunlight and shadows impact your plants, and how plant growth in a season changes.  This data helps you figure out where to plant certain species or where to place your trellis systems, etc.

• Maps and plans

Record the location of the plants.  Bulbs are underground and you can forget them.  Draw up a plan and keep revising as you learn about your gardens.  Figure out timing for when to plant stuff for a useful harvest. You don't want your brocolli harvest all at the same time because you cannot eat it all.

• Costs

What kind of money and inputs are going into your gardens for soil amendments, seeds and plants.  

• Plant Wish List

What do you want to harvest?  More importantly, what do you like to eat?  Which herbs are you using for your livestock, etc.  Which give beauty?   Those are the plants that should be the most abundant in your gardens. 

• Pest and disease observations

How do they affect your plants and what are the signs?  How do you treat for pests and disease?  Are their any plants resistant?

• Mistakes and Victories (summary)

Summarize mistakes and victories so they can be eliminated or repeated next season.

Terroir Seeds has a good published garden journal here.  This has a lot of useful looking formating.  I will try to incorporate some of this data into my online journal.