This time of year, I am grateful that I take time to keep a garden journal. It’s not always easy to do, especially during mid-summer when everything seems a blur of activity, but when I start the planning process all over again, it is a helpful to remember what to repeat or not.
In my minds eye I can remember only the good things, such as my favorite plants (artichokes and Italian purple pole beans), soil strategies (turn the compost more often), plant combinations that were particularly stunning (lots of Nictotiana with pale salmon zinnia) yet the real story is in my notes: the plants were too crowded, the tomatoes suffered another year of blight, the annual border was late to bloom and those little red lily beetles were a constant torment.
Starting with a plan is no doubt the best way to side step mistakes, but I will be the first to admit that regardless of my copious notes, I continue to plod along with the same routines: I get my seed orders in too late, start lettuce in plug trays too early, forget to check dates on seed packets and find low germination, and always come home from the nursery with plants that were not on my list.
My garden journal is also filled with design ideas, sketches, and ideas that I get just from being in nature. I am always thinking about new ways to carve paths into the four squares of my garden, how to construct arbors with bamboo, or stake the peonies with homemade hoops. Doodling is a big part of garden journals, which is why pages with graph paper are so much better than one with lines, and infinitely better than a decorated book that is too precious to take outside.
