Garden Journaling

jillianrivera8
Sep 3, 2021
3 min read

It is late August, a time when your gardening is slowing down, unless of course you're planting your fall garden. I wasn’t able to plant many fall seeds mid-august, which for zone 7 is the best time, so this year I will only be planting some quick growing seeds like lettuce and radish. Even if you're tending your fall garden, August is a good time to think about starting or writing in your garden journal. Writing in your journal now, when your memories of the garden are fresh, is a great way to help keep your advice to your future self as honest as possible.

How I Started

Garden journaling can be helpful for planning your garden space, determining what plants you like, and which ones grow well in your space. I started my garden journal in the winter or 2019 to 2020. It started as mainly sketches of the spaces I wanted to transform. Then, I added a timeline for planting. When I should plant seeds and transplants into my U shaped raised garden beds, how I wanted the flowers to be placed in the perennial garden, and on my pallet planter. I expanded by journaling what grew well and what issues I encountered. Use the arrow to flip through the pictures below.

This Year’s Journal

The fall & winter of 2020, I expanded my garden journaling to clippings I found in garden magazines and seed catalogues. These clippings provided recommended planting and harvesting times, fertilizers, organic pesticides and tips for keeping pests away, and plants I wanted to try either for ornamental reasons or to attract fauna to my garden. So this year my garden journal became a journal/ scrapbook.

The Future of my Garden Journal

The best thing about maintaining a garden journal is comparing each growing season. For example, last year I planted luffa squash. What a fun experience! I had a huge harvest of squash, cleaned them and got a giant bag of luffa sponges to use and give as Christmas stocking stuffer gifts. And a bonus, the bees and other pollinators loved the luffa squash flowers. The flowers were covered in bees all the time. However, I planted the luffas right next to my vegetable garden and the vines grew so big they overtook my tomato plants. I had a very small tomato yield. While planning my garden this year, I wanted to keep the luffa away from my veggies but needed something for the vines to climb. Last year I attached a lattice to the side of my shed and have been contemplating what to grow there. I tried planting the luffa there this year. Less light, less high quality soil, last year the luffa was planted over the compost bins and the roots grew into the compost. This year my luffa is pitiful. Now from one year to the next it is not too hard to remember how one plant grew, however, when you are managing many plants and comparing five or ten years it can be a bigger challenge. My journal is only 2 seasons old but as It continues and expands I expect it will come in very handy.