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How To: Garden Journaling
Written by Autumn Swartz
The weather is warming up, which means many of us are prepping our garden beds for planting. If this is your first time starting a garden, everything might be a little confusing to keep track of. So, we have created a basic guide to garden journaling to help you get started!
This guide will be a basic format to follow when starting to garden journal.
Hardiness Zone
This is important to have in your gardening journal because this determines which plants will thrive best in your area, and which ones won’t. You can simply look up your hardiness zone online and print out an information guide for the area you live in.
Last & First Frost Date
Frost dates are the average date of the last light freeze in the spring or the first light freeze in the fall. They are a key factor in letting us know when it’s best to start planting certain seeds. Our last frost date for Strange’s is April 15th – April 20th as we reside in zone 7a.
Sketches
Here you will record the layout of your garden and where everything is located. It’s important to show exactly what has been planted, what room you have to plant more, and how many seeds or plants you can do in a particular section. Example Below:
Seeds & Plants
Here you will make a list of all seeds and plants you have planted and the dates on which they were planted. Note: Keep all seed packets and store them in an envelope that you can attach to your garden journal, or take pictures of them and store them in an album on your smartphone. These packets always have useful and important information.
Logs
This is a written and recorded section of everything you do in your garden beds.
Expenses
This section is to record all expenses for gardening tools, seeds, fertilizers, and basically anything you have bought for your Garden and or landscape beds. Note: It’s best to have an envelope attached to your garden journal to store all receipts, or take pictures on your smartphone and store them in their own album.
Maintenance
Here should be a record of all maintenance practices, including weeding, fertilizing, pest control, harvesting, etc.
This is just a basic example of what to keep track of. Garden journals can be very personalized and fun to do, so feel free to make them look any way you want and add more details!
Now if you prefer to only use your smartphone over having a physical journal, then just replace the sketches with pictures, and write all the information and lists in your notes app to keep track.
Here is a link to a PDF document that you can print out and use to get started!
If you have questions that weren’t answered here, or if you need more information, feel free to stop by and see us at either the Broad St or Mechanicsville location, or give us a call, or drop us an email at info@stranges.com. We’re here to help you grow better!
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