Your garden journal is one of the best and easiest tools to improve your garden.

Make notes in a garden journal to help you remember what happened in your garden in previous years so this year you can grow your best garden ever 🙂

Then use your journal notes when planning for next year’s garden. Because you will have notes on what you planted and how these plants grew,  you will save time in determining what plants to grow this year.  And with this pre-planning you can get in and out of the garden centre quicker  (well maybe – I tend to linger because I love wandering around the garden centres).

Also, by growing plant varieties that grow well in your garden and that you will use, you  can save money both at the garden centre and at the grocery store.

I do my best to make notes in my garden journal throughout the growing season.  

Without my garden journal, from one year to the next I don’t always remember what herbs, vegetables and flowers I grew and how they performed.  Who am I kidding – after a long dull winter, I never remember.

There have been times when I didn’t keep track of the plants I grew in my garden, only to find myself in the garden centre the following year trying to remember which cherry tomato was the one that was really sweet and didn’t crack, and which one of these scented thymes is the one my son really liked.  And I wish I had kept better notes of my plantings.

One of the most valuable things about my garden journal is the ideas I get for next year’s garden while I am outside gardening.  By jotting down these ideas at the time, they don’t become long forgotten when next year’s gardening season comes around.

And, I really enjoy flipping through my garden journal in the dead of winter, when I’d rather be gardening than shoveling snow 🙂

Truth be told, I don’t feel like stopping my gardening to make notes.  My hands are usually covered in dirt making for a messy journal over time.  The pages fly around in the wind and invariably knock the pen down to the ground somewhere.

But if I don’t jot down my notes in my journal while I am outside gardening, it won’t get done later.

Once I come indoors and clean up, my focus is no longer on the garden, but on prepping meals, paying bills, driving the kids around – the gardening I did and the observations I made in the garden never make it to my journal.

So I keep my garden notebook and pen by the back door, where I can quickly grab it on my way out to the garden.

By the way, I don’t keep a fancy journal for my garden notes.  There are some really nice garden journals available, but I prefer a simple 80 page spiral bound notebook.  It saves me some money and I don’t feel  bad when the pages get wet and dirty out in the garden.

There are many ways to keep a garden journal – on the computer in a spreadsheet or document, purchased garden journals with quotes, pictures, gardening tips.  There are even downloadable garden journals.

The best garden journal is the one you will use.  So if you are not making garden notes throughout the growing season, experiment with the different options until you find one that works best for you.

The Garden Journal, Planner and Log Book is a great option.  This garden journal is practical and gorgeous, with categories for everything to keep you organized.

Here’s a list of questions to get started making your garden notes: 
What herb, vegetable, flower, other plant varieties did you plant.
What plants grew well in your garden.
What pants failed miserably.
What herbs and vegetables you picked often and wanted more of.
What herbs and vegetables were left unpicked.
What plants you wish you had that you didn’t plant.
What the weather was like – hot and dry, cool and rainy.
What butterflies visited your flower and herb gardens.
And anything other notes that seem important, or strike your fancy.

Happy Gardening 🙂
Barb

P.S. The Garden Journal, Planner and Log Book by Joy Kieffer has gotten great reviews.
You can purchase your copy at Amazon.