keeping a gardening journal

[safronsue]

Decided i need to keep a journal about the gardening year and wondered what other gardeners do. Do you use online resources or make your own? if so what do you make notes of? there's obvious stuff like planting times and dates for harvest. weather? the moleskine do a journal for gardeners and i am tempted but then hey, maybe i can do better. whadyathink?

[Davie Crockett]

I was bought this one for Christmas :http://www.amazon.co.uk/RHS-Allotment-J ... 316&sr=8-1

I can't fault it; room to write down what's been planted and month by month advice.

[matowakan]

I started a plain notebook several years ago which I use as a diary. I jot down planting dates,weather,when things first appear,what I plant etc etc. Also note down when eggs hatch or anything else of interest re the garden. I dont think you need a specific journal,just somewhere to write in!

[Odsox]

I use the plain old computer that I'm typing this on, using plain old Wordpad that came with the OS.
Can't lose it down the back of the sofa and it's all that I need.

I have on my "desktop" all of the diaries from Garden 2004.rtf to Garden 2012.rtf all available at a mouse click and I can see when I planted what and how it did, and how long it took to harvest, for everything I grow without hunting for past conventional diaries.

[grahamhobbs]

I do mine on a spreadsheet. With well over 300 separate sowings each year, then potting on, planting out and harvesting, I can't think how otherwise I could plan it and keep track of it all. Each sowing is represented by a row and each week by a column. Cells are colour coded to represent sowing, potting on, planting out etc. The advantage of a spreadsheet is that everything can be sorted according to numerous attributes, eg. sowing, planting out or harvesting dates, or according to plant family or position in rotation, etc. This way you can quickly see what you need to be sowing any particular week or what you should be eating. The latter is really useful for planning sowing in succession to get a spread of crops throughout the year. In excel you can also add 'comments' to any cell eg. eaten by mice, hit by frost, plant more next year, etc
At the beginning of the year I plan it all out, based on previous years experience, but each year is different, so as the year goes on I modify the spreadsheet, recording variations in dates and making appropriate comments eg. harvest earlier than usual but weather exceptionally warm. I also try to keep a subjective record of the weather on a row near the top, so I can compare one year's weather to another.
It took a time to set up, but is an invaluable time saver now.

[Thomzo]

Blimey, no wonder I'm rubbish in the garden. I just bung the seeds in and hope. I did get given about a dozen calendars this year so I have written on one of them what I've planted on the date I planted it (i.e. today!). What else should I put on there?

Zoe

[Odsox]

It all depends how good your memory is Zoe.
What mine is basically for, I note the date down when I sow something and for big plants like cauliflower, how many I transplanted.
I now also note when they were harvested, then next year I have a rough idea when to sow cauliflower seed if I want to harvest them at the end of June (say). It's also handy for realising that you may have sown seed too early or too late by comparing previous years.
I found out that (for me) it is not worth sowing peas too early as last year I sowed some on the 7th of February and some more on the 28th of March and both rows matured pretty much the same time, started picking them on the 9th of May.
Now in subsequent years, if I want fresh peas in early May I now know that I need to sow them before the end of March.

As I'm self sufficient in vegetables it's fairly important NOT to get everything mature at the same time and then have a month with nothing.

[Davie Crockett]

Graham, Have you got a blank copy of your excel format planner you wouldn't mind emailing me? It sounds right up my street!!

[bonniethomas06]

Blimey, no wonder I'm rubbish in the garden. I just bung the seeds in and hope. I did get given about a dozen calendars this year so I have written on one of them what I've planted on the date I planted it (i.e. today!). What else should I put on there?

Zoe

HAHA me too Zoe, I try every year to start a normal diary but am just to inconsistient to stick to writing in it...can barely bring myself to get out in the garden let alone catalogue how rubbish I have been.

That said, although I abandoned it in September, my blog is a useful record of what was planted/growing when.

I have seen a friends granddads diary, in which he weighed every single thing he harvested so that he could check on yields and things. Amazing. Would be good to check how economical it was to grow your own I suppose - I am certain that we spent more growing it last year than it would have cost to buy from the shops, but can't prove it either way.

[oldfella]

Have a look at the Sutton Seeds Veg Garden Planner try it for free. I have been using it, and find that it is the most useful tool, and by far better than any Diary, and the cost is that of a good Garden Diary.

Eddy PS, you may recall I mentioned my Medical problem, and as it progress's I find the need for a Diary an essential.

[Green Aura]

Graham, Have you got a blank copy of your excel format planner you wouldn't mind emailing me? It sounds right up my street!!

What he said.

[safronsue]

YES, that veg planner thing is just the ticket i think. just been having a play on it. i like the idea of a hard copy but i don't think i'm organised enough to do anything as well as the veg planner. thanks for the tip oldfella! do you use it yourself?

[grahamhobbs]

Happy to forward spreadsheet to anyone that would like it, but you need to email me with your email address, because it seems I can't attach files to emails sent via the forum.

[oldfella]

YES, that veg planner thing is just the ticket i think. just been having a play on it. i like the idea of a hard copy but i don't think i'm organised enough to do anything as well as the veg planner. thanks for the tip oldfella! do you use it yourself?

Yes, and when you first look at the program it appears a bit daunting, but once you have done garden lay out everything falls into place, and once you start it becomes a little additive, and one of the best features is the crop rotation, and succession planting. Maybe you should try it out making it as one small raised bed and not your whole plot, that way you can work through the program and try out all the features.

Regards Eddy

[phil55494]

We use an RHS branded garden diary. Yes it looks very pretty having a lovely horticultural illustration on each page but the most useful bit is it has columns for 5 years worth of information on each spread - 1 week per spread.
We record all the things spoken about earlier, sowing, planting out, harvesting, weather, flowers in bloom and any other garden or allotment related stuff.
Having up to 5 years on each weeks recordings means that it is quite easy to see how things are compared to previous years.