The Most Essential Garden Tool
You may be looking around at all the fun fall decorations or cute photos of kids in pumpkin patches and thinking, “Can I grow pumpkins like that?” Well yeah, if you have the space. But the time to plant them is May, not in September when most of us start thinking about “winter” squash. Trouble is, in May you are so excited about tomatoes and watermelons, you forget all about pumpkins.
The embarrassingly obvious solution: write your future self a note. Having a place to keep plant wish lists is one of the MANY reasons a garden journal is my favorite, can’t-live-without-it garden tool. I’ve found that my bare hands, a substitute tool, or a MacGyvered solution can replace just about any rake, shovel, or gadget, but there is nothing more valuable than the notebook where I write and organize my garden knowledge, experience, data, and records.
I use a calendar-type planner with plenty of space to write on each day, and I make notes on when I planted, harvested, watered, treated for pests, and added fertilizer. I keep diagrams of garden plans to refer to when planting, and I jot lists of flowers and veggies I’m curious to try (next year is Seminole Pumpkins). I paste in photos of my harvests and wide shots of my garden beds at each point of the season, so I can have a visual record of how much things have (or haven’t) grown over time. I schedule out dates to turn my compost pile (every six weeks), when to plant tulip bulbs (early November), and when to expect an arugula harvest (about 50 days after planting).
It really only take a few minutes a day to keep up with the record keeping. Yesterday I wrote:
High: 75/Low: 50 Sunny
Hibiscus still blooming
Sprinkled Slug Magic around carrots
Harvested: Bowl of lettuce, lots of Roma tomatoes, and 5 okra
Seems like trivial info, but if in a week, slugs have eaten my carrot seedlings, I can check my journal and see that it rained after I treated for slugs and I never re-applied. Or when I’m shopping for a perennial plant to fill in a spot near where I like to plant hibiscus, I might choose something that will bloom early so that I have color in that area before October.
Here’s a list of things to track in your garden journal. You don’t have to use all of them, but I do recommend trying to find something to write down each day. If you didn’t do any tasks or chores, try #3, #10, or #11 on that day.
The daily weather and weekly rainfall.
You’re going to check the weather every day anyway, might as well write it down. You’d be surprised how quickly you can forget the last time it rained and how handy it is to have that info in your journal.
What you planted — where and how.
Did you add compost or use fertilizer? What brand? Did the soil seem dry or moist? What time of day was it? These circumstances will be clues to help you understand why your plants did or didn’t flourish in the weeks following planting. As for where, I like to draw out a diagram of my space (in pencil, my plans are always changing!)
What’s blooming.
In the case of tomatoes and squash, this will let you know to expect fruit soon. Keeping track of when your perennials bloom will help you plan what else to put near them, either to coordinate or spread out the color show in your garden.
What and how much you harvested.
How did it taste? Do you wish you’d had more of something, or did you grow way too much? These notes will be essential when planning your garden and shopping for seeds next year.
Any pests or diseases you see and how you dealt with them.
Photos of the bugs or the damage can be really helpful in identifying problems, and many treatments need to be repeated on a schedule, so if you decide to spray, you’ll want to keep track of when and what you use. Also good for planning next year: I know to look out for slugs in spring and squash vine borers in July.
When and how you fertilized your plants.
Again, many approaches suggest feeding plants on a schedule, so you’ll need to keep track of the last time you used fertilizer. What brand did you use? How much? If your plants really produce, you’ll want to repeat the system.
What plants you’d like to grow next season OR a wish list of plants.
I keep blank pages at the back of my journal for notes and lists that aren’t time bound. One of these is a running list of all the plants I’d like to try next season. This usually just requires picking up a packet of seeds and plotting a space for it. Another is a list of “dream plants,” things like trees and shrubs that are more expensive and require more planning and decision making.
Products and tools you’ve used and what you thought of them.
Handy when it’s time to stock up on fertilizer or buy a new pair of gloves. I hated my garden hose and accidentally bought the exact same one again. Oi.
Days until first or last frost.
So much of the garden calendar is based around these two dates. I make a note of these in my calendar, but also mark the relative important dates like “4 weeks until last frost,” when I’ll start tomato seedlings indoors.
Your feelings, thoughts, and energy levels.
Are you feeling awe when you watch bees and butterflies? Or tired from too much shoveling and squatting? Keeping track of your personal experiences as a gardener will help in planning the next season. Maybe you plant more pollinator friendly flowers next year, or have someone else come in and install taller raised beds and fill them with fresh soil so you don’t have to stress your back.
Photos or drawings.
I like to take a photo of my garden from the same angle each month. It’s remarkable to compare the growth that can happen in just 30 days. And it also helps me keep my patience in early spring when I can look back at a photo from last year and know that the garden will be full by May. I also love to see close-ups of flowers and bright photos of a full harvest basket mixed in my journal with all the data.
And it’s not too late to start! Fall is a great time to reflect on the good and bad of your garden so you are armed with information for planning next year. Maybe you’ll add pumpkins to your wish list, and refer back to it when you are buying seeds for next year.
Life can get busy and it’s not easy to remember everything you did or learned in the garden from year to year, but the simple tool of pen and paper is great way to keep the info handy. Let us know if you have a different record-keeping system you love for your garden. There are as many right ways to keep a journal as there are gardeners.
