My Garden Journal

I am sure it comes as no surprise, but I I have kept a garden journal since 1980, when I planted my first perennial garden at our house on Madison Street. Back then I just used a spiral notebook and kept track of what I planted in that first perennial garden and in a large vegetable garden we had at that first house.  I love going back and looking at what we planted--all the varieties of tomatos, eggplant, broccoli, lettuce and of course the flowers. We were so energetic back then!  In 1993 I guess I thought I was serious and bought a real garden journal on a visit to Monticello, and I have been using the same one ever since.

I write down my To Do lists every year...

I add pictures for inspiration...

And see all the bulbs I planted...

Keep track of information on orchids and plants I want to look for....

Write down some good climbing roses ( I planted New Dawn)...

Add pictures of gardens like this patchwork garden...

And maybe this is where we got the idea for edging our beds...

Sometime I add photographs and diagrams, and for the past few years I have been keeping track of my pots and what I put in them. I also mark in the margins what is blooming and the date. It's fun to look back and see when things bloomed from year to year. For example,  my tree peony bloomed on May 10 in 1993 (and had 11 blooms), on May 1 in 1994,  and  bloomed on May 5 in 1996. Now isn't that interesting? Well, to someone who gardens these are the little details that are interesting. I write all year long, about the weather and the snow and the skunks and the goldenrain tree bugs I had covering everything one year (eventually had to cut that tree down). When I pruned, divided, fertilized, staked, tore out. Which plants work, which do not. It's quite a book!