Garden Journal

Every year I record my gardening adventures in a journal.  I have used many different types of journals over the years.  This year I made a stack of journals to use,

 each one serving a specific purpose.  

A calendar, several art journals, a gratitude journal, the yellow flowered journal below will be my Garden Journal for this season.

Bright and cheery colored papers were chosen to reflect a garden, flower, and herb theme.

Click here to see more of the PEACOCK Journal.

Extra pieces of papers can be added for making notes or plans.

Several little pockets glued in can hold seed packets or other miscellaneous items.

I added this little "notebook" by stapling along one edge, attaching it onto a page. I used about 10 sheets of lined paper, and punched holes and threaded cotton thread through the holes,  The little flowers are actually buttons.

View an additional journal here:

2015 GARDEN JOURNAL

2001 GARDEN JOURNAL and a note to all followers

I came across an old Garden Journal the other day.  

It is a photo album, nothing fancy, just the kind with a sticky page covered with plastic.  You can use almost anything you have around the house as a journal.  I have even used the photo albums with the individual pockets  that hold photos.  I particularly like this kind as I can organize my seed packets, placing them in the pockets.  After the seeds are planted I split the seed envelope apart and put the front and back in separate pockets.  This allows me to see at a quick glance what I have planted and the important information provided on the back of every seed packet.

  When notes are kept, use a file card, cut to size of necessary, and slip it into a pocket also. And of course take pictures of your garden's progress and slip the photos into a page. You can always find these older albums at a thrift store.

A small section of the garden.

Types of crops planted, maps of crops grown, and planting dates are good information to record.

I love this!!!  He even drew my HAT!

Mom in the garden, a portrait by my 5 year old (who is now 6"1") and has flown the nest.

A Heirloom Choigga Beet

A page listing the things I hoped to get done that day.

And a mention that the day before the W-I-N-D did not blow with it's

usual gale force.  Now that is worth recording!

A drawing of Heirloom tomatoes from the green house.

Journals of your gardens over the years are a joy to read as you sit by the fire 

waiting for Spring!

One of my favorite Journals from 2010

click here to see

This is the front cover.  I used a bound art book filled with recycled brown paper.

I will start today, making plans, and keeping track of seeds I am starting indoors.

This year's journal is going to be spectacular!  That is if I can stop pulling weeds, watering, harvesting, transplanting trees, chasing gophers, shewing away hungry rabbits, hunting high and low for a shovel, all the other 1001 menial chores to get done, and sit down to make a few entries.

I have a large metal mail box at the farm I often keep the journal in.  This is handy in the spring when I am planting so I can quickly record the crops planted before I get back to the house and forget the dates and varieties.  

NOTE TO ALL FOLLOWERS:

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GARDEN JOURNAL

Every Year I keep a journal of my Garden.  Sometimes it is an elaborate book filled with seed packets, the weather documented, how and when plants were harvest, etc. etc.

 This year, I glued an old painting that had a whole torn in it, onto a journal cover.

A piece of garden twine keeps the pages in.

Draw simple plans of the area so you have a record of what was planted, enabling you to keep track of crop rotation from year to year.

Make notes of the wonderful surprises you find.

Simple drawing, newspaper articles, seed packets. and pictures drawn by your children are easily glued onto a page.

Add pictures of crops you grew.  Record the planting date, how productive they were and make a note of any additional information that can help in the following years.

Keeping a garden journal and recording important information will help you have a better, more productive garden the following year!

Click here for a view of 2010 Journal

A Garden Journal

 

 

Every year I keep track of my gardens in a journal of some-sorts.  Papers ripped from a notebook and held together with zip-tyes,  a photo album, or art sketch books from the store.  This is my journal for 2013.  An old linen dress I cut up and embellished with odd bits and pieces of lace, and satin from a vintage wedding dress.  Tassels to tye it closed.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slipped cardboard into the front and back covers then sewed around the edges

 

 tea stained heavy art paper to use as the pages

 

bound the pages to the finished cover with dental floss and a strong tapestry needle

 

 

 

 

  water colored flowers, favorite words and quotes on the pages

 

 

Now paste empty seed packets, draw plans for crops, the weather, add your thoughts, success and failures of plants.  Animal births and sales, goals, have friends who visit your garden write their observations or thoughts and bits of wisdom.

 

insert from 2010 journal



Share your ideas about a Garden Journal with us.  Have you used anything unusual, beautiful, or unique?
 

Garden Journal

inside cover of garden journal

I began journaling my garden years ago as a means to keep track of plantings, the
 production of vegetables, the weather, crop rotation and future goals for the farm.

Over the past years I have used art sketch books, notebook paper held together with
 a zip-tye, backs of used manilla envelopes, but I won't show you those.  The journal
 I am sharing is from 2010.  I purchased a brown  paper sketch book at the local
 discount store.  It is hard bound and very sturdy.

Front Cover




 To record seeds planted, glue both sides of  a packet of seeds on a page.  The back will give you a lot of information and the picture on the front helps remind you what you planted while you impatiently wait for the vegetables to grow.

Make drawings of your plantings so you can keep a current rotation schedule for next year's planting.

Paste in newspaper clippings, have friends and neighbors who come to visit write advice about gardening,  write down the funny things your kids say about gardening, record animal births etc.

Keep track of the weather.   

CSA Membership invite for 2010

 

Write down by the seed packet, the dates you planted the seeds, how many days to germinate, how many days to harvest, how long the harvest season lasted, and how many pounds you harvested per plant, this information helps you decide in future years what to grow. 

Draw or doodle or take pictures of your farm and animals and glue in.

 Try keeping a journal this year it's good reading during the long days of winter.