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A Year in the Garden: Garden Journaling

by Jim Binnings, CCMGA Master Gardener

How often have you heard or read something and thought, "That is a great idea; I should do this," only to forget about it in a few days? I felt that way about keeping a garden journal. I knew it was a great idea. I saw all the reasons I should do it. I knew I would be a better gardener for it. But like the seed catalog sitting on my coffee table that held so much promise, I never acted on it. Well, I finally kept a journal in 2023 and have to say I am a believer now. On the 1st and 15th of every month, I take an hour to update my journal. Being consistent in journaling is important. I also realize there are as many different ways to keep a journal as there are varieties of tomatoes. Since I am an accountant, I used a simple Excel spreadsheet instead of a nice-looking bound journal notebook with a cool-looking cover you can buy online or at your favorite retailer.

I like keeping an electronic journal because I can edit my journal easily and have individual sheets for each bed, which can go on forever. I can keep a history this way very easily. While I like the electronic journal, it does have its drawbacks. If I have a garden map or a bed layout, I will have to attach it to the spreadsheet as an image. It's not a big deal, really, but it's something you should consider when deciding on your journal format. I gave each bed in my yard and the community garden where I garden a name. Each named bed has its own sheet, which I update every two weeks. I would like to tell you about my experience. And now that we are starting a new gardening year, maybe you will give journaling a try in 2024.

To begin with, I created a goal or mental picture of what I wanted to accomplish for each bed in 2023. For example, in the "lantana bed," I decided which lantanas to plant and what other plants to include in the bed. In this case, it was snapdragons. Once I settled on the annual goal for each bed, I started journaling every 15 days or so with my observations about each bed. Over the year, this is what I discovered about journaling.

Since I had a goal or mental picture of what I wanted to do with the bed, I was able to stay on point and focus on the goal. In the past, I would easily get distracted by a great new plant I saw at the nursery. I would buy it and go find a place for it. It was fun to do this, but my beds were all over the place (not that there is anything wrong with the carefree look of an English cottage garden). But now, at the end of the year, I can see each bed developing its own look. I like this, and I have to admit, I saved money by not buying so many plants.

Over the year, I was able to keep up with each plant I was growing. The journal allowed me to focus and write about the plants in each bed. For example, snapdragons were such a surprise. After the late winter and spring bloom, I did not pull them. I read up on them, trimmed them, and had nice little shrubs in the lantana bed. In the fall, I had a small bloom. And now I have full green little shrubs with many blooms waiting to put on a show in the next month or so. Journaling helped me focus and learn about my plants. And it also brought to my attention that I probably should not pull up my annual plants so quickly. I will leave them in the ground until they die and learn about them. Then, I will move on to other plants. Also, by journaling, I could keep up with the names of the annuals that did well or not. In the past, I usually forgot what I bought and planted. Now, I check my journal. Now I know to buy "Beacon" Impatiens for the planters in the front yard in late spring.


By journaling, I was able to keep organized on bed maintenance. I would see the volunteer plants and weeds popping up during the year. I would either keep the volunteers or pull them along with the weeds. Journaling also helped me keep up with fertilizing my plants. I now know when I last put fertilizer down and can devise a plan for future applications. I was able to keep up with the needs of the soil. Do I need to mulch? Or do I need to put some compost down? And I got into a grove about cutting or trimming plants. These are all big steps forward for me. In the past, I would only pay a little attention to the beds once I had them planted.


During 2023 I paid attention to my bed layout more. The journaling encouraged me to focus on each bed, for example. Because the sun goes south in winter, several of my beds get full shade in the winter (October through March) and full sun in the summer (April through September). I know that now and can plant accordingly. I also can see where I can make improvements to beds. For example, I had a bed that I planted morning glories in. I used tomato cages as a makeshift trellis. Over the summer, I followed along as they grew and journaled their progress. It was a great success. Now, I am going to build a small arbor for the bed. I researched vines and have settled on Mexican flame vine for 2024. And since the vines don't bloom up until summer, I have a spot on the east side of the bed for daffodils in the early spring. The journaling kept me focused. Now, I am excited about the "morning glory" bed for 2024.


Being more focused and organized might seem like it could take much of the fun and spontaneity out of gardening. However, being more focused gives me more time to play and experiment because I am using my time better. Journaling allowed me to do a better job of keeping up with experiments. For example, in 2023, I experimented with cover crops. I want to enrich my soil naturally, and I think cover crops are one way to do this. By paying attention and writing the results down, I know I should start buckwheat in late May, and I can get two plantings before it gets too cold to grow. I also now know that a combination of oats and peas in my vegetable beds makes for an awesome cover crop in colder weather. The oats have taken over and are a great green manure while the peas are nitrogen fixers.


As for my vegetable beds…" the Veggie Patch" and "CHG," I keep track of what I have planted to rotate what I grow. I also experimented with shade cloth during the summer and documented the results for the future.


I am also better now at tracking pests and plant diseases. What did I do, and did it work? Did I get some tips and tricks from other gardeners about dealing with these issues?


What about the weather? The weather in Texas is tough on gardeners,, and I need to stay on my toes if I am going to have a successful garden. How did I change my watering during periods of drought? What did I do when that hard freeze came out of nowhere? What did I do about the hot,, punishing sun during late summer? And were the steps I took successful? I have one year's worth of observations and experiments in my journal now to refer to.


I added a "Miscellaneous" sheet to keep up with gardening activities not specific to a bed. I kept notes on my compost piles. I have one for yard waste, and the other is a tumbler for food waste (a tumbler keeps the opportunistic animals away). You could also add here where and when to buy transplants, where to get gardening materials, and the successes and failures of starting plants from seed (I really struggle with this).


At the end of the year, I was able to go back and look at 2023 and see my successes and the things that didn't go so well in the garden. This is important because gardening is a journey. And as a journey, it is good to see where I started and how far I have come… or not 😊.

At the end of the year, it is also time to think about and plan for the upcoming year. This is a fun part for me because I can dream about adding an arbor to the Morning Glory bed and tweaking some of my existing beds with new plants. I am thinking about mixing vegetables with my regular plants this year. I can add onions to a few spots. I can also add Swiss Chard to a bed or two. Ruby red and bright lights are two very attractive varieties of Swiss Chard. I have to be careful here because if I plan on eating the veggies, I can only plant them in beds free of chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides.

I am a practical gardener and realize there are journaling ideas that I would not choose to include but it may be something special for someone else. You can add poetry and quotes to your journal. You can add personal reflections and feelings you had during a particular time. If you have a physical journal, you can add pressed flowers that have a good memory attached to it. Or include a photo of a favorite plant or pet playing in your garden.

An important discovery for me was to see the value of keeping up with my gardening activities over time. Journaling works best over time. You need to see the story and history of your bed/garden. Journaling helps me do this. And lastly, the number one thing garden journaling has done for me is to help me stay focused and organized. I never want to take the fun out of gardening by being too structured. But by adding a little more focus and organization to my gardening, I have a better appreciation for growing a garden, learning about plants, the soil, how to layout beds, and how to deal with the endless variables we will have to contend with. Being focused has made me more aware of the wonder and magic that takes place in a garden. Welcome to 2024 — your journal awaits!

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