Saturday, February 2, 2013

My Garden Book

I've been going a little crazy the last day or so looking for my Garden Notebook.  It is generally with my favorite gardening book but it's not there!  We've had a lot of reorganization around here and a little home remodel so I'm sure it just got moved but now my mission is to find it.

I should back up and explain my Garden Notebook.  It's just a notebook that I have my garden notes in.  I learned a long time ago that I don't always remember what I did and how my garden reacted from year to year.  Yes, I just referred to my garden as its own entity because it is.  It grows and changes from year to year, just like we do.  I know, I'm a nerd when it comes to my garden!

Back to the Garden Notebook.  I keep a simple hand-drawn layout of what I planted where each year.  Trust me, it's a very rough sketch, nothing fancy as I am not an artist.  In the garden planning stage, this lets me decide where I'm going to plant each item and what companion plants I can put with it.  Each item in the garden has friends that it does well being planted with, some people can keep this straight in their head, I can't, so I write it down.  I generally do this layout in the cold winter months when I can't really do much outside.  

I also include notes about the garden.  What worked where, what struggles I ran into this year, suggestions on what to change next year.  For example, I have one section of my garden that tends to be a bit shady, so in that area, I plant things like lettuces that like it a little cooler and out of direct sunlight.  I even take notes about the weather, nothing extreme but like "we had a lot of rain in the spring" or noting the drought that we suffered last summer.  That information helps me when I note how the harvest was.  

It's really not as complicated as it sounds.  Mine is just a ratty old one-subject notebook that has dirt stains on it because it's spent time outside in the garden with me.  Your notes can be as simple or as complex as you'd like or need them to be.  For me, the notes in my garden book are as important in planning my garden as the seed books that will soon be filling my mailbox.

Ok, I'm off to search for that book!

6 comments:

  1. So when you find your notebook will you share what goes well together or away from each other? I want to have a garden this year, but am nervous, excited, and overwhelmed all all at the same time!

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  2. I have a list in my favorite book "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible" By Ed Scott. It's a wonderful book.

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  3. I can't wait until I get your input on where to put my garden and what I should plant. You know that my thumb is not green!

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  4. Love the idea of a garden book! I keep a sketch of where things are planted each year, so that I can remember to rotate properly - but the notes about what worked, what struggled, and the weather would be so useful too!

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  5. So, I'm trying to plan my garden and where to plant things. I have a problem though, and I was really hoping you could help??!! I have a lot of shaded area in my yard. What things need a lot of sun and what things do well in a little and/or a lot of shade?

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  6. Go to the library and check out the book "Vegetable Gardener't Bible" by Ed Scott. It's amazing and does address this.

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