The New Year is a wonderful time to refresh, make goals for the year ahead, and get more yourself organized. If gardening is an area where you could use more organization, a garden journal is a wonderful solution.

In addition to helping with organization, garden journals can help you increase productivity in your garden, collect data, or engage with your personal slice of nature on a deeper and more creative level.

How to Start a Garden Journal

The first step is to deciding what type of garden journal you want to use. You can use a traditional, simple lined notebook, a mobile app, or even a bullet journal. There are also garden journals commercially available, which are typically formatted like a calendar, making it easy to record information each day.

It may take some trial and error to see which one works best for you. Keep in mind that the ideal journal is simply one that you think you will keep up with frequently.

The next step is deciding how exactly you want to use your garden journal. Like choosing a type of journal, the answer to this depends largely on your personal preference and what you’re most interested in tracking.

For example, if you’re interested in seeing how weather affects your Garden, use your journal to keep track of the temperature, rain and snowfall, humidity levels, and any other factors that could help you make better planting decisions in the future.

Another idea is to use the journal to record sowing and harvesting dates for your vegetable garden and any pest problems you have, as well as when those occur. The data could help you increase yields in your vegetable garden in future growing seasons.

A garden journal can also be a good place to keep a record of general information, such as fertilizing schedules, bloom times, and the names of your plants (including cultivar names).

Get the Most from Your Garden Journal

With so many possible uses, a garden journal can help you overcome obstacles and find horticultural success, whether you are a seasoned professional or new to the world of plants.

If you’re ready to dig deeper, the Kemper Center for Home Gardening can offer more detailed ideas for garden journals. You can also access more gardening tips, including monthly suggestions for gardening tasks, at Kemper Center’s Help Page.

Catherine Martin
Public Information Officer