The Village Gardener: Garden journals

by Georgeanne Vyverberg –

I am a compulsive journal keeper. It started many years ago with those Dear Diary types, but with three brothers in the house I quickly abandoned those. However, I have a habit of keeping little notebooks around the house, in cars, in my backpacks and more recently in my purse. I jot down overheard conversations and random thoughts, while waiting for appointments. I seldom use the same notebook every time, because I invariably can’t find it in a rush and so pick up whatever is lying around. Some of these contain the thoughts and notes of a decade or more.  

For example, I recently attended a reading of a Pulitzer Prize novelist. The tattered notebook I found in my car at the last minute to jot down notes contained a list of mosses collected on a foray in September of 2003 in a marble quarry in Massachusetts, some notes from a botanical hike in Letchworth State Park from 2009, as well as some observations of people, while sitting in a car waiting for the rain to let up in 2007 in a shopping mall.

Then there are the house journals and travel journals and garden journals. These last few are at least in chronological order and that is why they are so valuable. I urge you to begin keeping a GARDEN Journal now. Yes, today, even in late November. The colder winter months when there is time to sit and think is a perfect time to begin. Even if you have a tiny yard and garden you will find yourself checking it to see just when the crocus first bloomed last year and five years ago. Its helps to jot down daily temperatures and weather patterns too.

So, how does one start? There are some really nice garden journals one can purchase at this time of year. They make great gifts for any gardener. It’s a easy thing however just to make your own. A simple steno pad or one of those black and white composition books work nicely.  After a while you will begin to see just what you want in a journal.  Also, I have found it very useful to make a map of my yard and garden and what grows in it.  It’s especially useful in a Vegetable garden where certain crops need to be in rotation.

Now, settle down with a hot mug of coffee or tea or perhaps a glass of wine, preferably in view of the garden and decide what you want to itemize.

Here’s a short list of things I like to track:

• Any new plantings – dates planted and variety;

• Weather conditions daily;

• Insects-both good and bad and how they were handled;

• When plants first emerge in spring both in perennial and vegetable garden;

• Also in your daily notes what works and what does not?

• What might be a better choice of annuals or perennials?

 

This list is certainly not complete and subject to each gardener’s style, which makes each and every garden so unique.

Next time I will share with you my favorite gardening books, but I would love to hear from others what they are reading and what garden book you find indispensable.  I also would like to know what you want to read about in this column.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Georgeanne has been fascinated by plants ever since a neighbor gave her some flower seeds when she was very young.  The magic of watching them sprout into beautiful flowers has become a lifetime of wonderment. She lives in Honeoye Falls with her canine and feline friends, small flock of chickens and more recently a rabbit, or two.