Gardening Journals
By: Beulah Courter, Master Gardener

What tool does a gardener find almost as useful in the winter as in summer, should never garden without, but frequently does, and can be obtained for little or no cash? The answer is, of course, a garden journal! Custom-made for the gardener's own backyard by, eventually, years of observing and recording, such a journal is an invaluable guide as the gardener plans for each new year.

The simplest journal is a calendar with large spaces for jotting down pertinent information on a regular basis. If you look through the calendars still available (and on sale) at your favorite bookstore you can probably find one specially made for gardeners. The inspiring photographs and to-do suggestions may be just the encouragement you need to keep recording faithfully.

You will certainly want to keep regular notes about the weather. Temperature, snowfall, rain (or lack of it), and first and last frost dates belong in the journal. You will want to record the first blooms of spring as well as those blooms that continue long after everything else has called it quits for the winter. By all means keep a record of what plants bloom simultaneously in your garden. This may vary slightly from year to year, but eventually a pattern will emerge. This will assist you in future garden planning and transplanting.

Maintenance chores should be on your calendar. Make a note of when and with what you fertilize from year to year. Record diseases and pests, if and when they appear, as well as what you did to remedy the situation. Some of these "plagues" tend to be recurrent. If you know approximately when to expect them you can be ready; perhaps even ahead of the game with a preventative. Keep a record of when you prune your shrubs and trees. If your spring bloomers fail to bloom, it just might be your pruning schedule and not the weather at fault.

Keep an account of when and from where you order seeds and plants, as well as what you spend. You may need to keep the dollar amount in some sort of secret code, depending upon the interests of your spouse. You will need to record the dates you sowed your seeds and set out your plants, whether they were ornamentals or for your vegetable garden, and when they germinated.

If by now your calendar is looking a bit crowded and you're actually beginning to enjoy this record-keeping, it may be time to move up to a book-type journal. These, too, are available at your local bookstores, or you may latch on to a child's three-ring binder and personalize it to suit yourself. These larger books can hold photographs of successful plant groupings, clippings from garden magazines, notes about what you want to move where, and small sketches of gardens that for now exist only in your imagination. There is room to record your thoughts as well as quotes from books or poems you always meant to remember, but didn't.

Your journal may, or may not, be a literary masterpiece. It might begin to resemble a scrap book or photo album as you include more and more items. It will, however, surely be that indispensable tool earlier described.