The longer I garden, the more I believe in the importance of keeping a garden journal.

By keeping a garden journal, you not only keep financial track of what you’re growing, but you also keep track of your favorite seed companies,  favorite plant varieties, yields, planting times, etc.  It makes gardening just a little bit easier.

I started out by using a composition notebook that I bought at a thrift store for 10 cents.  However, in anticipation of expanding, I am going to be moving my data to an Excel spreadsheet for easy access and the ability to make graphs.  (I’m a bit of a graph nerd)

I’ll be able to track every variety of plant each year, the days to maturity, the yield, and the costs.  Then, I should be able to extract each plant variety into a graph to see differences between years and if they are consistent performers, etc.

I like having a “Comments” section, because gardening has so many variables, it’s good to keep track of them.  I’ll make note of things like diseases, pests, weather, any difficulties with seedlings, and so on.

Gardening is a lot of trial and error, but by keeping tabs on what happens, as it happens, it takes away some of the guess work.

I hope this helps you and please feel free to comment about any additions you would make to a journal!

BENEFITS:

• Tracking what works and what doesn’t
• Remembering the varieties you like the best
• Keeping track of costs
• Having a lot of knowledge and experience at your fingertips
• Being able to pass your knowledge along to others

🙂