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Keeping a Garden Journal or Notebook

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People who want to become better gardeners will find that keeping a garden journal or notebook is helpful in reaching that goal.

Naturalists, biologists, ecologists, and others who work in the world outdoors have traditionally written their observations in field notebooks and lab notebooks, because the effort pays off. Writing down their observations helps these people to focus more purposefully on what they are seeing.

The same idea works for gardeners.

Writing down what you see, what you plant, when you plant it, how plants respond to a particular fertilizer or compost or flood/drought situation, and more, helps us become better gardeners.

Recording our observations in a garden journal or notebook provides some clarity. It helps us truly see which activity or amendment or crop variety might promote more successes.

Our gardens become more productive as we learn from our successes and not-so-successes.

Does it have to be an actual notebook?

A gardener should choose the type of notebook or system that will be easiest to use. If an app or computer program seems easiest, then that may be your best choice.

However, actual writing and drawing on actual paper can be more helpful to learning about your garden than typing into a program, spreadsheet, or app.

Studies have shown that, for putting information into your longterm memory, hand-written notes are more effective than typed notes. (See this pdf document by Mueller and Oppenheimer, as an example.)

The advantage seems to be that, for many people, putting observations into their own words improves the ability to remember and to incorporate those observations into a larger mental framework or image.

The physical act of writing, itself, also adds an element of body-memory that may be missing in typed information.

What kind of journal or notebook is best?

In my earlier gardening years, I kept garden notes somewhat randomly. Some garden notes were in plain spiral notebooks; others were variously on loose graph paper and notebook paper or calendars.

Two copies of the Garden Planner and Notebook, stacked, showing that the copy used in 2021 has the year hand-written on the front.

I still have most of these notes, and they did improve over time, but the inconsistent and scattered nature of the notes makes it harder to locate any exact bit of information that I might be trying to find. In the past several years, I have become more deliberate about keeping my garden journal.

A guided garden journal and notebook

Now, I write my garden notes in the Garden Planner and Notebook that I designed and published with new gardens in mind. The introductory information in each section reminds me to consider things like companion planting, cover crops, crop rotations and more as I work in my new garden.

In my old garden, I did not need these reminders. I knew how my old garden worked, what to plant, when to plant it, and where in the garden it should go. A simple calendar or blank book was all I needed for keeping a garden journal or notebook.

Now, I am happy that I had the foresight to know that I would need all of these reminders as I moved to a new garden, new climate zone, new soil. If such reminders would help you, a journal like the one I designed might be a good choice.

A blank book

Cover of my Gulf Coast Herbal for 2021-22, showing hand-written title and contents information.

Another type of notebook that I like to use is a blank book. This year, one of the garden goals that I had listed in my Garden Planner and Notebook was to learn more about herbs. Specifically, I have a goal to learn more about herbal medicine.

I set up a blank book to be a “Gulf Coast Herbal for 2021-22” with sections for the eight herbs that I planned to focus on first. All eight seemed to be safe for beginners to work with.

Only one of the eight does not show up routinely on edible-plants lists.

Because this garden notebook has a specific additional purpose, beyond garden success, it is arranged a bit differently than my main garden notebook.

I set up each herb section to include traditional uses, HOW to use them, growing information, some additional (modern/recent) research on the mode-of-action for each herb, potential hazards, and any recipes or treatments that I tried, along with results of those treatments. Essentially, I am my own guinea pig for trying these out.

I have learned a lot! This Herbal is just the first volume in what I expect to be, eventually, several booklets of information about the medicinal uses of herbs that I am growing in my Gulf Coast garden.

The blank book that I chose for this garden project is a Moleskine brand booklet that has lined pages. It comes in a 3-pack. The books are a good size, 5″ x 8.25″, and short enough (not too many pages) that they are easy to organize and fill.

Handwritten page from my Gulf Coast Herbal, about Anise Hyssop

Some blank books I have seen are so beautiful and have so many pages that they can be a little bit intimidating. I like the plain booklet style of the saddle-stitched Moleskine. I can write and draw in it without worrying about ruining a beautiful hardcover book.

Also, the blank cover gives me a lot of freedom in setting out the purpose for each booklet.

It would not be difficult to set up a small blank book like this lined Moleskine booklet as a garden journal or notebook for the coming year.

What should I write in a garden journal or notebook?

Any notes you take should be useful to you. The kinds of information that I find useful to write in a garden journal or notebook include these:

  • Planting dates, both for starting seeds in pots and for planting them in the garden
  • Plant variety names (not just Collards, but ‘Georgia’ Collards, for example) for my crops
  • What I noticed about the crop (size, productivity, flavor, pest problems, and more)
  • Basic map or diagram of where things are planted in the garden – this needs to be remade two or three or four times each year as old crops come out and new crops go in, to help work out crop rotations
  • Results of a soil test, if I had the soil tested that year
  • How I used those soil test results in choosing and using fertilizer/nutrient-sources for the garden
  • Pests that show up, which plants they are on, the damage they are causing, and what date I first saw them
  • Methods of dealing with the pests, and notes about what works (and what doesn’t)
  • Notes about the success (or not) of any companion planting that I have tried
  • Notes about pollinators and other beneficial insects that I see
  • Notes about the weather, especially the big events that can cause damage (such as floods and frosts)
  • Notes about major goals for the garden and the progress made (or not) in achieving them
Page from the Garden Planner and Notebook that includes a chart for recording fertilizer information, including soil test results and which fertilizers are used.

However, I have been gardening for a few decades. Also, in the past year and a half I have been working to “speed learn” how my new yard works. This all influences the amount and kinds of information that I write down. Your choices of observations and information to record may be different from mine.

This, though, is a thing I know for sure: As I observe my garden each day, keeping my goals in mind and thinking about the underlying meanings of my observations (what they tell me about the garden) speeds up my learning.

Do garden notes have to be in whole sentences?

Calendar page showing list, in the right-side margin, of seeds planted in a flat on 1 Sept.

One of the best parts of keeping a garden journal or notebook is that it is all yours. If you are a whole-sentence, narrative kind of person, then writing out whole sentences might be your choice. However, it is not the only option.

Lists, like a list of “what I planted today” or “places I ordered seeds from this year” are also great ways to record information.

Drawings and diagrams are also good tools for recording some kinds of information. I draw my garden beds whenever I replant, and record, either in the drawn shape or outside the shape with arrows pointing inside, where each crop is planted.

Sometimes, I include a note about what should be planted in that spot next.

Using the Garden Planner and Notebook

Most of the options in the “what to write” list that is earlier in this article also are given space and explanation in the Garden Planner and Notebook. This makes it easy to use!

Read the sections, then add the information and observations that you want to track in the spaces provided. If you don’t want to fill out every section, then don’t.

Some of the options in the “what to write” list shown earlier, like my goals, I have written in the lined pages that are included as a section called “Notes, ruminations, and inspirations”.

Also on those pages I have written notes about the upcoming fertilizer shortage – so many countries have reduced both fertilizer production and exports! Other notes compare crop varieties; how I managed the 3×3 patches of arugula in spring; and estimates by various researchers of how much space is needed to grow enough food for one person, or (in different research) the entire UK.

Other gardeners might use those lined pages for inspirational quotations, historical information about particular plant varieties, or other bits of garden lore.

I already ordered a new copy of the Garden Planner and Notebook to use next year. One thing I didn’t think about when designing the book was that, at some point, there will be a whole row of these identical Planners on my shelf. Finding which one is for the current year could become a bit complicated.

To help me identify the correct copy, I have written the current gardening year in permanent ink (using a “Sharpie”) on the front cover of each one.

Also, 2021 has a couple of stickers on the front. These are more instantly obvious than the hand-written year.

I have different stickers ready to apply to the 2022 Garden Planner and Notebook when it arrives.

I hope that all your gardens are growing well!

How to Keep Garden Records

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Most gardeners, I think, are aware that they should be keeping records of what goes on in the garden each year, but not all gardeners are equally skilled at organizing the information. Personally, I do keep records of many garden activities, but each year’s notes have not always been gathered up in one place.

Excerpt from a garden journal with notes from two planting dates in January, 1995. Ink on light blue paper.
Garden notes on a notebook page from 1995.

Why keep garden records?

Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia says this:

Keeping garden records will improve the quality of your gardening experience as the seasons go by. You and your garden are unique, so personal records are important. You’ll discover what works and what doesn’t, weeding out mistakes and making better decisions.

Garden record keeping, from Agriculture Extended Learning, Dalhousie University.

My experience is that the records I keep do for me exactly what Dalhousie University says. I learn from the failures, and I repeat what works. Over time, there are fewer failures and more successes.

What should gardeners write down?

The kinds of information that are truly helpful include these:

  • Soil test results and all the things done to improve the soil, from compost additions to cover crops to fertilizers
  • Exactly which vegetable varieties were planted, when they were planted, how many of each, and whether they did well in the garden
  • Weather notes, especially about any weather events that might have affected the garden, and including frost dates
  • Harvest notes — when each crop was ready for harvest, and whether your harvest matched the catalog description for the crop
  • Garden layout, including where each crop was placed and how much square footage was given to each
  • Planting calendar that shows when each crop was planted, plus the timing of other garden-related events (such as fertilizer applications, compost additions, arrival of pests)
  • Notes about pests and diseases, and their effect on specific crops
  • Notes about crop rotation
Hand-drawn map of a vegetable garden with notes about what is planted in each part of the garden.
Map of this year’s fall crops.

The above list is not all-inclusive, but the observations a gardener makes about those topics form a base from which good decisions can be made.

The trick is remembering, as the year rolls on, to get most of that activity recorded.

What kind of journal works best?

The notes below are about my own experience. It would be weird if every gardener was exactly like me in terms of best-record-keeping-method, so feel welcome to disagree with my opinion!

Blank books filled with lined pages

Many garden journals that I have been given are lovely — hard-cover books filled with lined pages, separated into chapters by month, sprinkled about with inspirational quotes and drawings of beautiful flowers.

I love looking at these and am often actually inspired by the quotes. However, I have not had good success using these journals for record-keeping. The main difficulty has been keeping the information organized in any way that is different from the month-by-month design of the books.

Other roadblocks include laziness (the lined pages seem to be asking for full sentences) and not-wanting-to-ruin such lovely books with my less-than-lovely handwriting.

It is likely, though, that these beautiful blank books are exactly what some gardeners want and need. We are all different!

A record-keeping mish-mash

Mish-mash may be the best way to describe my garden record-keeping style for the past few decades.

Some of my own garden information is recorded on websites/blogs, where I’ve been writing for ten years. Some garden notes are in various types of lined journals such as spiral notebooks, some are on loose pages gathered up in three-ring binders, and some are saved as plant tags that are stored in envelopes.

It is not too hard to imagine that other gardeners have a similar mish-mash of records, possibly stored in shoeboxes.

Garden Planner and Notebook

Front cover of Garden Planner and Notebook: a vegetable garden guide and journal
Front cover of Garden Planner and Notebook.

I have put together a new book that will make it easier for me to keep the most useful information all together in one place for each gardening year. Even though I designed the book for my own use, I’ve added guiding text so other gardeners can use it, too.

The book is titled Garden Planner and Notebook, a Vegetable Garden Guide and Journal.

One reason for creating the planner is that, sometime late next summer or early fall, I will be moving. There will be much to learn about the new yard, with its unfamiliar soil, weeds, insects, and history.

The new garden planner and notebook is full of the reminders, prompts, tables, and other spaces for recording specific information that will help flatten my learning curve in gardening in the new space.

The book includes tables for recording some kinds of information, for example about specific crops, and pages of lines for writing down other kinds of information, such as weather notes, food notes, and the story of the garden.

When I say “story”, I mean writing about the funny comments visitors make about my garden (“Black popcorn! It looks rotted.”) or about finding a black widow spider in the rock wall or reaching into a bag of compost and getting a handful of snake.

I wanted to have all of that together in one book for each year. However, this year, I will use two books. One will be for my spring and early summer garden here in north Georgia, and one will be for the garden that I will start in our new yard, which will be further south.

If you decide to try using the Garden Planner and Notebook, please let me know what you think about its usefulness. You can leave a comment here on this website or on Amazon.com, where the book is available for purchase.

Regardless of the format you use for record-keeping, if you haven’t kept good notes in the past, try it this coming year. You may be amazed at how much you learn about gardening, just by writing down your observations and reviewing them at the end of each season.

New Book! Fall Garden Planning

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New for 2018! Great for new gardeners who are looking
for a shortcut to successful fall gardening and for more
experienced gardeners looking to hone their craft.

Anyone still reading at this site, and not yet over at smallgardennews.com, my new site, may not be aware that my little book finally got published. I am so happy to have finished!

The page for the Kindle version on Amazon.com includes a “look inside” feature that I still haven’t figured out how to activate for the soft-cover version, but this – generally speaking –  is what’s inside:

  • Crops that grow best in fall
  • Two ways to make a planting calendar for your own garden 
  • How to get the garden prepared for your fall crops (amendments, fertilizer)
  • Management options for three common pests (caterpillars, aphids, root-knot nematodes)
  • Details about 24 fall-garden crops, including recommended varieties for Southeastern gardens 

There is more, of course, even though it is just a little book (65 pages) but those are the main sections.

I developed the book with gardeners in the Southeastern U.S. in mind – from the Carolinas to East Texas, in planting zones 7, 8, and 9. I wrote it because, when I worked at my county’s Cooperative Extension office, a fairly common set of questions each year was about when to plant and what to plant for a fall vegetable garden.

This book is my expanded answer to those questions, based on my experiences as a long-time organic gardener who looks for research-based answers to questions.

If you choose the Kindle version, you might want a larger copy of the blank planting schedule that is in the book. I have added a FREE pdf version that you can download as an 8.5×11-inch copy to the Books page at Small Garden News.

It is near the bottom of the page.

Gifts for Gardeners (and Budding Foragers)

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Plenty of garden-focused blogs post lists of gifts for gardeners for the holiday season.  I haven’t put up such a list before, partly because I am not a big “shopper,” but this year I am giving it a try.

This year’s list has a theme, though, because people who know that, in addition to growing good food, I also do some foraging (an extension of gardening…) ask about mushrooms pretty often. If you or someone you know has an interest in, but zero knowledge of, hunting for wild mushrooms or growing mushrooms at home, this shopping guide is for you.

Having excellent teachers and guides is very important, because eating the wrong mushroom can be fatal. Knowing the potential danger does not deter all people, which explains why the very first items on the gift list are about education.

A year’s membership in a local mushroom club is a great gift, along with the promise to go along on guided “mushroom walks” with the club. There are knowledgeable people in the clubs, and on the guided walks, to get anyone’s education off to a good start. In the Atlanta area, that club will be the Mushroom Club of Georgia. This group offers monthly meetings, classes, workshops, and guided walks. The Morel walk in March is usually a members-only event, which is a definite perk. If you are not in the metro-Atlanta area, look online for your nearest mushroom club.

Books and tool for mushrooming. PHOTO/Amygwh

 For mushroom-ID help on your mushroom walks/hunts, a basic guide like the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms is also useful. This is the book that many local foragers seem to always keep handy for reference. The pictures are very good, and descriptions include information about edibility for each kind of mushroom in the book.

Using a mushroom-growing kit at home to  become familiar with the growth habits of mushrooms is another great way to help get ready for foraging season. A kit to grow oyster mushrooms like this one (linked) is especially good because you are likely to see oyster mushrooms “in the wild”. Careful observation as these grow at home could help flatten the mushroom-identification learning curve by a little bit.

Oyster mushrooms grown on straw. PHOTO/Amygwh

I have grown portobello mushrooms in a purchased kit and oyster mushrooms as part of a mushroom club workshop. Both brought good food into my kitchen, and both were easy. Anyone who already has tried a couple of kits and is looking for a different challenge might want a copy of the book Mycelium Running. It contains a long section about growing many kinds of mushrooms in many ways.

This book also includes information on the benefits of adding the old mushroom-growing substrate to gardens, which is a great “crossover” to my more major interest in growing good food.

Oyster mushrooms in the wild. PHOTO/Husband of Amygwh

A last item on the shopping list for a budding mushroomer is a folding mushroom foraging knife. I know that this may seem like an unnecessary thing, and it is, but the curved blade really does help in harvesting mushrooms, and the little brush at the end is great for cleaning dirt and leafy debris from wild-harvested mushrooms. Putting pre-cleaned mushrooms into your basket or bag makes the kitchen-prep work at home much easier.

If you are hoping for a different kind of holiday shopping guide for gardeners, I have one posted at my other site, Small Garden News.

Some of my garden-writer friends have their own lists, too. Those lists will be linked here as soon as they are available:

See Marianne’s list at The Small Town Gardener.
See Kathy’s Gift Ideas for Garden Cats at her Cats in Gardens blog.
The Washington Gardener’s Holiday Gift Guide
Top 10 Books for Gardeners, also from the Washington Gardener

Happy gardening!

Gardening Books I Have Loved – Culinary and Salad Herbs

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I didn’t grow up with gardening. I always loved to be out-of-doors, and I loved plants. When I went to college, still loving plants, I studied botany.

All through my adult life, I have been lucky enough to encounter wonderful books about plants and gardening that have helped me along the way. Some of these books were not strictly “how to” books. When they were, they tended to be for regions of the country (or the world) that have very different conditions than where I live, so the instructions don’t 100% work in my yard.

Instead of using them as instruction manuals, as I found them and absorbed what they had to offer, these books engaged my imagination, made me laugh, and showed me new ways of viewing gardening and plants.

This is one of those books:

Culinary and Salad Herbs: Their cultivation and food values with recipes, by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde. 1972, Dover. A republication of the original 1940 book published by Country Life Ltd, London, England.

My first gardening book. PHOTO/Amygwh

My Great Uncle Balfour, a man I had met only a few times in my childhood, lived in the same town where I was in college. One day, when I had walked across town to visit and share a pot of his Darjeeling tea, he gave me this book. He was going blind from macular degeneration and could no longer read, but he loved plants, too.

When his sight had begun to fail, using information from this book, he had replanted most of his garden with herbs. He didn’t need to see the herbs to find the right ones for use in the kitchen. Scent was all the guide he needed.

Folded into the book are a couple of sheets of paper, with handwritten notes about the herbs in Uncle Balfour’s garden. One sheet contains a seed list. In 1974, he paid 15 cents for a packet of sweet marjoram seeds.

The handwritten notes are a family treasure, but the book itself was a revelation. At that point in my life, I had no idea that people ate dandelions and purslane, but there they were, described in the book as though their use in the kitchen was commonplace. This was news! The book includes recipes for herb teas, herb cheeses, and herb vinegars. It also includes this astonishing bit of information about making a salad:

“James II’s head cook considered that there should be at least thirty-two ingredients, and a ‘brave sallet’ contained more than that, for it was the decorative centerpiece of the table.”

For someone whose experience of salad had, up to then, consisted of iceberg lettuce combined with bits of carrot and tomato, topped with some Green Goddess dressing, this requirement strained the brain. However, the rest of the book helped me see possibilities for the other 29 ingredients.

This is the very first gardening book I ever read, and it shone a light on my path forward into both gardening and using my own herbs and vegetables in the kitchen. Anyone else, new to gardening and loving plants, could do worse than to start with a regionally-inappropriate little book like this one.