For this unit, you will create a gardener's journal complete, with among other items, a planting schedule, seed saving information and other assortments.
All of this will be in a month by month fashion and whatever other way you can incorporate the required parts.
Diary Style Garden Journal
The diary style follows the format of a regular bound diary. The pages are usually unformatted so that you can write as much, or as little as you wish for each day, or skip days without skipping pages. Your notes are written in chronological order. While you can tape seed packets and pictures into this style journal, they will eventually over-fill the book and make it unattractive. This style is best if you want to simply record your activities and observations.
Formatted, Bound Style Garden Journal
This style garden journal may be formatted with an space allowed for each day, with specific contents related to gardening, or in other ways. It is bound so that you cannot insert pages afterwards. Notes are in chronological order. Again, addition of enough seed packets and pictures will make the book very bulky.
Loose-leaf Style Garden Journal
This format of garden journal utilizes lined or unlined loose-leaf paper as its base. Its main advantage is that you can insert pages at a later time. Why would this matter? Well, if you want to keep all entries regarding a specific plant together, as some gardeners do, you will need to either insert pages as required, or leave a lot of room after the initial entry, which looks really silly until it fills up. This is also a nice cheap method to create a do-it-yourself garden journal. See our instructions for a sample homemade garden journal. You can also use computer to create and maintain your garden journal. Use of backgrounds like gardenjournal.gif will let you customize the appearance of your journal.
Web-based Style Garden Journal
There are numerous services for creating and maintaining a garden journal on the internet. With these services, your journal is readily available online to you at any time, and many services are free. A selection of templates is usually provided by the service, for you to customize your entries to suit your taste and needs, and you can choose to share your journal with others, or keep it private. The advantages of this type of journal include your participation in an online community, and the ease of use, once you get used to them. The disadvantages include the need to be on the internet to make your garden entries or refer to past entries. Most services do allow printing of your journal. HERE is one example
Computer Program Garden Journal
This style of journal is useful for the gardener who wants to look at gardening activities in a variety of different ways. For example, to see all activities for a specific plant, or all activities of a specific nature (eg fertilizing), as well as activities by date. Most computer garden journals also include a section for detailed plant records, as well. You will usually be able to print all plant records and journal entries in a variety of different sort orders, depending on how you will use your journal. You can also add entries out of date order. The Garden Management System gardening software includes a garden journal. With this program, you can view journal entries for with each plant, in date order, and in a variety of other sort orders. You can also print a page for each plant that includes plant characteristics and details, as well as all journal entries for that plant, as shown in the sample plant report.
Look at the very bottom of the page for some inspiration/examples and have a look at this site for a wide variety of ideas on how to set up your journal.
All of this will be in a month by month fashion and whatever other way you can incorporate the required parts.
Diary Style Garden Journal
The diary style follows the format of a regular bound diary. The pages are usually unformatted so that you can write as much, or as little as you wish for each day, or skip days without skipping pages. Your notes are written in chronological order. While you can tape seed packets and pictures into this style journal, they will eventually over-fill the book and make it unattractive. This style is best if you want to simply record your activities and observations.
Formatted, Bound Style Garden Journal
This style garden journal may be formatted with an space allowed for each day, with specific contents related to gardening, or in other ways. It is bound so that you cannot insert pages afterwards. Notes are in chronological order. Again, addition of enough seed packets and pictures will make the book very bulky.
Loose-leaf Style Garden Journal
This format of garden journal utilizes lined or unlined loose-leaf paper as its base. Its main advantage is that you can insert pages at a later time. Why would this matter? Well, if you want to keep all entries regarding a specific plant together, as some gardeners do, you will need to either insert pages as required, or leave a lot of room after the initial entry, which looks really silly until it fills up. This is also a nice cheap method to create a do-it-yourself garden journal. See our instructions for a sample homemade garden journal. You can also use computer to create and maintain your garden journal. Use of backgrounds like gardenjournal.gif will let you customize the appearance of your journal.
Web-based Style Garden Journal
There are numerous services for creating and maintaining a garden journal on the internet. With these services, your journal is readily available online to you at any time, and many services are free. A selection of templates is usually provided by the service, for you to customize your entries to suit your taste and needs, and you can choose to share your journal with others, or keep it private. The advantages of this type of journal include your participation in an online community, and the ease of use, once you get used to them. The disadvantages include the need to be on the internet to make your garden entries or refer to past entries. Most services do allow printing of your journal. HERE is one example
Computer Program Garden Journal
This style of journal is useful for the gardener who wants to look at gardening activities in a variety of different ways. For example, to see all activities for a specific plant, or all activities of a specific nature (eg fertilizing), as well as activities by date. Most computer garden journals also include a section for detailed plant records, as well. You will usually be able to print all plant records and journal entries in a variety of different sort orders, depending on how you will use your journal. You can also add entries out of date order. The Garden Management System gardening software includes a garden journal. With this program, you can view journal entries for with each plant, in date order, and in a variety of other sort orders. You can also print a page for each plant that includes plant characteristics and details, as well as all journal entries for that plant, as shown in the sample plant report.
Look at the very bottom of the page for some inspiration/examples and have a look at this site for a wide variety of ideas on how to set up your journal.
You can record as much, or as little as you want, in your garden journal. Just make sure it's a fun activity, rather than a chore. Some suggestions for the kinds of information you may want to include are:
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You may find it helpful to divide your garden journal into sections. As with all the other choices you'll make regarding your journal, your choice of sections depends on how much information you plan to keep. Think about the gardening information you currently keep, and why you might consider a change. Then consider how to achieve this. Here are some possibilities to choose from.
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What You'll Need to make your journal
You can include or exclude, any of the materials listed--- you can decide if you need it or not.
You can include or exclude, any of the materials listed--- you can decide if you need it or not.
- material for front and back covers.
- graph paper for your overall garden plan and individual garden bed plans
- full-page vinyl pocket pages, 3-hole punched, for articles
- vinyl pocket pages with up to 4 pockets, for multiple pictures, 3-hole punched
- photo album pages - 3-hole punched
- 3-hole punched lined paper for notes
- tabbed dividers - monthly if you plan to keep your journal in date order, or blank for you to design your own dividers
- something to keep your pen and pencil in, while you're in the garden
- a means of holding your garden journal pages together, which might be a binder, ribbon, raffia or anything else that appeals to you.
- different colours of paper for different seasons, or for different purposes, as you wish, making it easier to find things if your journal will be a fatty
- Begin with a rough hand-drawn garden plan, laying out your garden beds. We suggest one plan for the front yard, and a second for the back yard. Do a third plan if you have substantial side yards.
- Transfer the individual beds on your main plan to separate pieces of paper, and tackle each bed individually. It breaks up the task, and lets you actually accomplish something.
- Map groupings of plants, rather than individual plants, and make it really rough. You can do more detailed, scaled versions later.
- If you plan to keep records on each plant or type of plant, you'll want to create a separate page for each plant species in your garden, and record where they're located as well as their descriptions, proper names, and as much information as you now know about them. Begin with a separate page for each, and fill them in later.
- Take pictures of plants. If you have a phone with a camera, take photos of your plant in various stages, so you won't think it is a weed when small and pull it out next year!
- Record your activities, including creation of the journal.