The scent and sights of spring are all around us, and the gardening season is upon us!
While the ground is still too cold to plant, this transitional period is ideal for documenting your vision for this year’s garden. To maximize the benefits of your home garden, keep a garden journal to record your horticultural triumphs and misfortunes.
What will you do differently this year? What practices or planting will you repeat this year because they brought beauty or bountiful crop harvests to your garden last year? A garden journal is a powerful resource for gardeners. Reviewing past results allows you to make better decisions about plant and crop choices and optimize the garden design this year.
Consider writing down what, when and how to prepare and plant your garden in a journal. This record lets you track your garden’s progress and observe patterns over time. It is great fun to compare the blooming dates of your lilac bush in years past.
Additionally, by recording what you planted, when and how, you can analyze what worked and what didn’t at the end of the season and adjust accordingly.
Whether you prefer a simple bound notebook, a customizable three-ring binder, or even a digital note-taking app, a garden journal allows you to organize your thoughts and plan for the current season. Be sure to create a folder to save printed receipts, plant tags, soil test results, etc.
A waterproof journal is ideal for outdoor drawing and note-taking, while digital journals allow easy photo documentation. Either way, I won’t need to rely on my memory to remind me where I planted those spring bulbs!
No matter what format your garden journal takes, observing and recording will provide you with invaluable insights for creating your ideal garden.
What kind of information should you record?
I suggest dividing the journal into logical sections. I have found that the most valuable sections are Summary Observations, Plans and Schedules, Planting Log, Harvest Log, and Plans for Next Year.
But it is your garden, and you can include sections of information that are most useful to you. If unsure how to arrange your journal, use free downloadable pre-made journal pages available online (examples Printable Journal Pages, Garden Journal Pages).
Summary Observations: Look over your garden in early spring and record observations about the plants, shrubs, and trees lost or damaged by weather, critters, or pests. Record observations about the plants, weather events, soil conditions, and wildlife encounters.
Plans and Schedules: Design the garden beds for his season. What flowers, vegetables, shrubs, or trees will be replaced or added to the garden? Will you add a new garden bed or expand a vegetable garden? Use a measuring tape and grid paper to create a scaled map, noting sunlight, existing trees, and structures. Label each bed with a number or other code. Indicate which plant or vegetable should be planted in each bed. In your drawing, consider the amount of sun, soil type, and plant spacing for this garden. This will help you know the right plants to buy or grow from seed and how many.
Now is the ideal time to take a soil sample from the garden and send it to the University of Minnesota Soil Test Laboratory for analysis of your soil; knowing the soil characteristics of your soil will help you decide the most suitable plants to use and amendments that should be added to meet the goals of your garden (see link UMN Soil Test Laboratory). Tip: When you submit soil samples, use the label for each bed as the ‘Sample ID.’ This will help you match the test results to the right bed.
Plan the care and maintenance activities on a planting calendar using local growing guides (for example, UMN Home Garden Care Calendar) to inform your schedule.
Planting Log: Record plant names and planting dates and add their location on your garden map. Throughout the growing season, jot down the care and maintenance you performed, including fertilizers and soil amendments. Did you rotate, trellis, prune or split any plants this year? Maintaining a garden journal doesn’t have to be a daily, time-consuming chore. Think of it as a quick check-in, dedicating 10 -15 minutes a few times a week.
Harvest Log: Document crop harvests and bloom times. Note successes and failures, and observe changes in your garden; has shade overcome your once sunny garden and consequently affected the growth of your perennial or vegetable garden?
Plans for Next Year: Review the information in your journal at the end of the season and reflect on the lessons learned. What thrived, and what didn’t? What favored varietals would you plant again? Were there particular critters or pests that cause you to have angst? Research the causes of your garden problems and look for solutions (for example, UMN Plant Troubleshooting Guide). Use this analysis to plan next year’s garden.
A garden journal allows you to track trends, identify recurring issues, and celebrate successes with minimal effort. Careful planning can help you cultivate the garden you’ve always envisioned. I began a garden journal in 1996 and have nearly 30 years of gardening history recorded within its pages. As I review it each year, I see the story of my garden and the progress made, and that brings me immense joy.
For more garden resources, contact the Carver-Scott County Extension Master Gardeners
www.carverscottmastergardeners.com, Yard & Garden Line: 952-446-5308, or email: questions@carverscottmg.com.
