Gardening: Resolving to be better at keeping a garden journal

My 2024 New Year’s resolution is to do a better job of keeping up on my garden journal.

I start with good intentions but get busy and the note-taking drops off. At the end of the season, I’m kicking myself for letting it go, especially when I go hunting for topics for this column.

This year is going to be different. This year, I am going to change my habits. But why keep a garden journal in the first place?

For starters, a garden journal can help you plan your gardening chores. Knowing when frost occurred in the past will help you plan when it’s safe to plant tender crops or harvest the last of the tomatoes. As our climate warms, it will be important to track this information. A journal will help you remember important information and observations like the source of a particular perennial you now want to buy more often. It will help you remember when the aphids or flea beetles moved in so you can be ready for them. Lastly, it will help you remember when it’s time to seed your tomato and pepper seeds indoors, so they are big enough to plant outdoors.

Noting when certain plants break bud or bloom helps you track microclimates in your garden and can help you choose and place plants where they are best suited. This is especially important if you are playing the zonal denial game and need to know the warmest corner of your garden.

A garden journal can help you remember where you planted that $50 perennial, so you don’t accidentally dig it up the following spring or, heaven forbid, where it was supposed to be and died. Journals are also a great place to tuck plant tags with their specific growing information for future reference.

Tracking weather conditions over time is a big help when you need to know when frosts hit your garden. We have so many microclimates in the area that first and late frost dates can vary widely. When the weather forecast says it’s going to be 37 degrees, I know my garden will be close to 32. I determined this by tracking the two sets of temperatures over several years. Tracking temperatures can help plan fruit tree spraying as larvae emerge at certain temperatures. Weeds also sprout at certain temperatures. Rain amounts in the Spokane region fluctuate widely west to east, so recording amounts of rain can help you plan watering schedules.

A garden journal can be as simple as a paper notebook all the way up to a computer program that links to a smartphone. It is whatever works for you. There are commercial paper and electronic journals on the market, or you can create your own. My main journal is an Excel spreadsheet for data backed up by a paper notebook for comments and stories that I keep in an old mail box in the garden. At the end of the season, I transfer information to the spreadsheet.