DIY Garden Journal and Planner

Keeping a Garden Journal is the best gardening resource to save you time and money year after year. Now is a great time to plan your spring and summer gardens and the best way to accomplish that is with a Garden Journal and Planner. 

I’ve talked a bit in earlier posts about creating a Garden Journal or Garden Planner. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but just never got around to putting one together until this year. There are lots of garden journal type apps available, but I just haven’t found one I like better than my paper one. I’ve been doing a bit of research and have put together a Garden Planner that is working well for me. I’ve done lots of tweaking and will likely do more, but for now I’m loving it. I realize many gardeners don’t keep garden journals or use garden planners, but hear me out and perhaps you’ll decide to give garden journaling a try.

Reasons to Keep a Garden Journal:

• To organize and keep track of your gardening endeavors as a reminder for the next gardening season.
• To keep track of problems, so preventative measures can be taken to remedy the problem next season.
• A Garden Journal provides you with a permanent garden record to look back on from year-to-year.
• The perfect place to keep track of all things gardening.
• Saves you time and money by not repeating mistakes (like buying plants that don’t survive in your garden, etc.)
• Because I’m a gardening geek and I think it’s fun.

Good reasons, right? Let’s keep going with some tips for putting together your very own Garden Journal.

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Garden Journal and Planner Supplies:

Here’s the stack of supplies that I started my Garden Journal with:

• A 3-ring binder (I bought this  2″ one so it will last me for several years. Any 3-ring binder will work though.)
• Monthly Dividers (these work well with the free printable calendar)
• Tab Dividers (these work great for customizing your garden journal and adding sections to keep organized)
• Photo Pages (these are awesome for holding seed packets and plant tags)
• Zipper Pouches (these work great for holding larger plant tags, bulb package labels and gardening receipts)
• Calendar (available in the Gardening Resources Library, keep reading for more information)
• Photos of Your Garden
• Plant tags
• Seed Packets
• Erasable Colored Pencils (again, totally optional, but so fun and they are great for adding detail to your garden sketches and plans)

Sections I have in my Garden Journal:

• Calendar – I use divider tabs for each month. On the calendar, I keep notes like, first and last frost, reminders, weather patterns, etc.
• Winter Sowing – I keep track of the seeds I’ve winter sown and the results. If you want to know more about Winter Sowing, check out the post when you have a few minutes. I also keep some articles (available on the post) that I’ve printed off in this section.
• Seed Starting – In this section, I keep a tracking chart of the seeds I’ve started early indoors and in my greenhouse, and make notes on the results. Pop over and pin this post so you have it when the time comes.
• I keep a section for each one of my garden beds. I hope to eventually complete an overhead type sketch of each bed, using the colored erasable pencils. Totally a garden nerdy thing, but I think it would be so awesome. I also want to add pictures using the photo pages I mention above. I’m also keeping notes about what I want to move or change in each of these flower beds, so I can refer back to them in the spring.
• I have a section for my Daylily Collection. I put together a chart that lists each variety of daylily, where I purchased it and which flower bed it resides in. So far, I have over 60 different varieties of daylilies.
• I have a section for my Hosta Collection. I will use the same type of chart I did from my daylily collection and do the same thing for my hosta collection. This is high up on my to do list and I will get it done this summer.
• I have a section for my vegetable gardens. In it I have a chart with each vegetable plant I planted for this summer and how it turned out.

Other Items to Keep in a Garden Journal:

• Receipts for Plants, especially trees, shrubs and perennials that are guaranteed.
• Pictures, always take lots and lots of pictures of your gardens, include before and after pictures of your garden projects and areas you want to redo.
• Graph paper for sketching existing garden beds, or to plan out new ones.
• Printed gardening articles
• Shopping lists
• Seed Inventory
• Current Seed or Gardening Catalogs
• Project Lists
• Lists of perennials or plants you want to add to your gardens.

I’ve made the very same charts, lists, calendar pages, etc. that I use in my Garden Journal available to you in the Gardening Resources Library. Pop over and take a look at what’s available to assist you in putting together your DIY Garden Journal. To get immediate access, fill out the subscription form below.

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I love the finished product! Well, it will never truly be finished, because it’s definitely an ongoing project, but I love flipping through the pages, writing, reading and adding to my Garden Journal. And, I will love referring back to it year after year.

Thanks a bunch for stopping by Gingham Gardens today. Do you use a Garden Journal and/or a Garden Planner? If not, I hope I’ve inspired you to give it a try and provided you with some tools to get your started.

Please feel free to hang around the gardens for awhile and take the latest garden tours: Tips for Gardening in August and a Garden Tour and Upcycled Vintage Garden Decor. Or, if you need some help keeping your flower gardens looking their best, check out Flower Garden Maintenance. If you have any questions or comments, you can use the contact form or you can leave a comment at the bottom of the post.

Happy gardening,
Joanna

p.s. Help me out and pin these pictures. Simply hover in the upper left-hand corner and click the “pin” icon. There are more pins to share at the bottom of this post. Thanks a bunch!

p.p.s. Follow Gingham Gardens on Pinterest for lots of great gardening ideas and tons of gardener’s eye candy.

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