Preparing to garden with a gardening journal

Kat Fox

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A shot taken mid-way through organizing my seeds and garden plans in a journal. The cat, turns out, was especially helpful.

I’m trying to take gardening more seriously, and my main goal is to garden all the way through the season without any long periods (as in weeks, not days) of neglect. I shall not quit when things get rough and hot in July. Writing things down always helps me, so I started a gardening journal – nerd alert, I know.

Hanging out at gardening events and chatting with gardeners over the past month has been motivating, and I feel all revved up and ready to go. With my dozens of seed packets and pots, and a mind full of ideas, I got organized this week and started planning.

First thing into the journal was a list of all my seeds, organized by which need to be directly sown into their permanent spot outdoors and which can be started indoors over the next few weeks. I’ll start all my lettuces and carrots, plus most of the flowers like poppies and sweet peas, outdoors. All the seeds were packaged within the past year, so I didn’t need to use the viability test explained by Judith Adam.

I carefully read the back of each package and figured out a chronology for which seeds to start first. A more experienced gardener may automatically know which veggies need the extra germination time indoors, but I checked all the instructions and found that my tomato and pepper seeds should be first in line for an early start.

The next thing into my gardening journal was a list of the different spaces I have to play with in my front and back yards. They all get different amounts of sun, so, again consulting my seed packets and plant hopefuls for the year, I wrote down where I imagined these different plants would end up.

I’ll keep track of progress in my journal, and jot down any new ideas, plus little tips I pick up here and there. It will help me learn what works and what doesn’t, and keep me motivated to take good care of my plants.

I’m feeling more confident about gardening than I ever have before. It’s mostly because of the exceptional advice I get from gardening friends and colleagues, but it’s also because I organized all my plants (assuming my seeds turn into plants!) and my garden plans in a super-nerdy gardening journal.

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