A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Keeping a gardening journal

I've tried this a few times in the past couple of years, but haven't come up with something that is easy to use.
I've tried it in notebooks (spiral notebooks with pen and paper) and I've also tried it on the computer using Word and another time using Excel.
no matter how I've tried to do it in the past, it always seems to confusing and cluttersome to be of any good for reference for the following year.

any sugguestions?

I'd like to include dates, pest probs, out of the ordinary weather conditions, amt of compost added and when, daily activities........well, you get the idea. I want to include a lot of info, but haven't come up with a good format to do it in.

anyone have a system that really works well for them?

cricket, I checked on line and there are a couple of free downloadable journals.

Here's one http://www.northerngardening.com/gardenjournal.htm I think I'm going to try this one.

One idea is to start a blog and keep up with it that way.

I actually started, I guess what you would call a blog type journal, just a few hours after I posted this question. I kept thinking, why is my data so hard to read? Then it hit me! 'data' is not easy reading! I've already done SO much this year but I just got on Word, put the date at the top and just talked about what was going on in my garden so far. I guessed at dates, and made the reading fun, funny, and suspensful. I can still use the 'search' to find info on particular plants. my first entry was very long, but I think I'm gonna like this format.
I'm gonna look at the link you provided. thanks so much! I'm still curious how others keep up with and track of growing. I bet there are some great ideas in there I can incorporate to my new journal. I'm also curious what others of you have tried? and how it worked?

How about

seeds

One for the chicken
One for the goose
One for anything
That got loose?

YEP!

I downloaded that garden journal but I can't type on it. Any ideas what I'm doing incorrectly.

Hi Cricket--

Haven't been around lately but I have a question to post (which will wait) & just saw you post. I am a NUT about keeping garden records. A real hard-core serious nut about it. (Like last year I weighted and recorded everything I harvested, and everything we preserved, so I could fine tune this year.)

I use a spreadsheet, like Excel, combined with dated-photos (which are awesome records), and hand written notes about anything exceptional. (I don't track the weather unless it's unusual.) The trick to the spreadsheet is laying it all out in advance, based in what information you want an "analysis" of the data to tell you, and defining functions.

So for example, one of the things I wanted to know was when I actually started harvesting things, compared to when I expected to be harvesting things (based on what was on the seed packet). So I had a row for each veggie. And the following columns:

*date planted
*days to germination
*projected germination [= (date planted) + (days to germination)]
*actual germination
*days to harvest
*projected harvest start date [= (date planted) + (days to harvest)]
*actual harvest start date
*harvest end date

At the end of the season I added another column, "actual harvest days" [= (harvest end) - (harvest start)].

When I looked at all of these data at the end of the season, I saw that several things were ready a week or more earlier than projected. And tomatoes and peppers were not.

The key to record keeping, I think, is FIRST asking yourself what you want to learn from your records. This is what a pre-made journal cannot give you. How does the creator of it know what you want to learn? I kept the records above for planning purposes (when is that patch of beans going to be empty), and to learn how closely the information on the packet matched what really happened in my garden. I'll keep the same records, along with notes on unusual weather, this year.

The records I keep on daily harvest help plan vacations!

If I were-- an I should be-- interested in pest problem data, I might lay out a spreadsheet with the veggie, the pest(s) you expect, the first notice/occurrence of the pest (date), action taken, date under control. This could be really useful if you are trying to compare two different actions.

Maybe I've rambled with useless info. I like data. Hope I've helped. Off to post my question!

Marica

"FIRST asking yourself what you want to learn from your records. This is what a pre-made journal cannot give you."

that's a very good thought. Everyone is probably wanting to know something different from the next person.

I just use my mp3 player and record a sound file and upload it to the computer and date it.......i write on my calender what i did for the day and then i can go back and look it up and hear my voice reminding me of the deal ...I started this several years ago in commercial kitchens when i was training new sous chefs so they could not say I didn't tell them a prep list or a catch in recipe they would surely mess up ......and it worked like a charm .....besides its fun going around all day talking to yourself...lol

This is a great idea! Much like when I take photos, upload them, and add comments.