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Homegrown, Homesteading, Vegetable Garden

Garden Records: Keeping a Garden Journal

January 25, 2014

Keeping a garden journal Green Bell Pepper

 Seven Garden Records You Should Keep Each Year

Gardening season is coming up! This is the time of year when I get really excited about the new year and new plans. I pull my garden records from last year out and remember what I did right and what I did wrong. What do I need to do differently this year to make my garden the best ever? Here are seven garden records I keep each year to help me in my planning.

I keep my garden records in the form of a journal, with pictures, notes, drawings, etc. I know it takes a little more time, but this is just more fun for me. 

Keeping a garden journal Green Bell Pepper1. I keep garden records of what I planted.  Did you plant seeds? Plants? In a greenhouse? In a sunny window? What starting soil did you use? What did you plant? How many? Where did you get your seeds/plants? Garden Center? Seed/plant catalog? Did your seeds germinate? At what rate? Did your plants grow well or die out quickly? Have other varieties worked better for you in the past?  

These are all very important questions to answer. Some plants work best in our area if you start them as seeds, because the growing season might not be long enough to harvest from them if you grow plants. Some plants grow best if they are started in a greenhouse, some grow best if they are started in a sunny window, some grow best if the seeds are planted directly into the garden.

As for starting soil, the absolute best I have ever used is worm castings. If you know of a super duper starting soil, please leave me a comment below.

Some things I plant every year. My family loves my homemade salsa recipe, so I always plant a salsa garden. I like sauerkraut, my family not so much, so I plant a few cabbage plants. With zucchini, I plant enough to enjoy, then freeze grated zucchini for making Zucchini Bread in the winter (baking in July, not a good thing here). Winter squash, potatoes, and onions are all great for winter storage, so I plant a lot of them. Cucumbers for pickling, tomatoes for canning, pumpkins for carving, and more.

 I know I personally have had good and bad experiences with different Garden Centers, seed catalogs, brands, and varieties. I could tell you that information, but what worked for me might not work for you and vice-versa.  

Keep garden records of what you planted. What worked and why. 

Garden records-map2. I keep garden records of where I planted it.  Where did you plant your garden? Was it a good place? Does it need more sun? Is it too wet? Too dry? Is it in a critter path?

My husband has drawn a map of our property, with all the buildings and their locations compared to the woods, orchard trees, nut trees, herb garden, and the vegetable garden. This is very handy to have. We can look at the map and walk our property to figure out where the best places to plant things are. Some plants like “wet feet” some like lots of drainage. Take this in to consideration when deciding where to plant your garden. One end of our garden in much wetter than the other. That is great for some plants, but limits crop rotation.

Keeping track of what you planted one year, helps you decide where to plant things the next year. Different plants take different nutrients, minerals, etc. from the soil. You should always try to plant different types of plants in a location each year, so you don’t deplete your soil. To help with this problem, it is also a good idea to keep garden records of the next item on the list, soil amendments.    

Garden records-Garden soil amendments3. I keep garden records of soil amendments I made and soil test results.  Making soil amendments will help to keep your garden soil from being depleted of important nutrients your plants need. Each year, we keep garden records of what we add to our garden. 

We add ashes from our fireplace, manure from a local farm (They give this stuff away free, for some reason.) or from your own animals,  composted leaves and food scraps, compost tea, and sometimes tilled in cover crops. Each of these things can add different nutrients to your soil that are very important to different plants in your garden. So, keep a garden record of these things and see what works for you.  

Garden records-tomato stakes4. I keep garden records of how I planted my plants.  I love trying new ways to to plant vegetables in my garden. While traditional gardening is best for some plants, we have had very good success with other methods like lasagna gardening, vertical gardening,  container gardening, and more.

I have grown potatoes in a trashcan, tomatoes on stakes, beans on a fence, and cucumbers on a trellis. We have used leaves or cardboard to keep the weeds down. These methods have all worked well for me. My worst experiment was pumpkins next to the sweet corn. The pumpkins tried to grow up the stalks of corn and smashed them down. Duh, is all I can say to that.

 

I pay very close attention when I see someone who has better success with their gardens than I do.  My uncle experiments with different methods every year and I am there taking notes. He bought this book, Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space by Derek Fell and has had a lot of luck using their gardening methods.  A book called All New Square Foot Gardening, Second Edition: The Revolutionary Way to Grow More In Less Space by Mel Bartholomew is also helpful in this area.

So, keep garden records of how you planted the things in your garden and share what works for you in the comments section so I can add them to my list of things to try.

Garden records critter control5. I keep garden records of critters and pests that visited my garden.  I have a love/hate relationship with critters. I love to see critters scampering around our property and taking pictures of them. I don’t mind sharing a little of my food with them either. What I don’t like is when the critters get out of hand and demolish an entire crop of vegetables when there is plenty of other food on our property to eat.

We have had a raccoon destroy our sweet corn, deer eat all the tops from our strawberries, rabbits eat all the stems of our green beans, slugs eat many holes in (and sometimes eat all of the leaves from) our cabbage and pepper plants, tomato worms eat the leaves off our tomato plants, deer and rabbits eat our tomatoes, and more. Every year it’s a new battle and we come up with new armory to deter the enemy. We have tried fencing our entire garden in, spraying things with soap, vinegar, and other substances. We have put netting over some of our garden to keep animals out. These and many other methods can be found in a book called The Impatient Gardener by Jerry Baker. 

What kind of deterrents have you used to keep critters away? Leave me a comment below.

It is good to keep garden records of what works to keep critters out of your garden so you know what to do year after year.

Garden records-yields6.  I keep garden records of my yields. Did you plant enough? Too much? Did you plant things your family did or didn’t like and you want to plant more/less next year? These are all important questions answer in your garden records. At the end of the year I take an inventory of how much my garden produced.

Only I like okra in our family and a few plants are plenty to provide the amount I need for the year. My husband does not like tomatoes (That’s just wrong, I say.) , but the rest of my family loves them. Like I said before, there are many things in our garden that only a few people in our family like. 

Last year we had a problem with slugs. They had eaten the leaves off all my pepper plants and it was too late to plant more. What a waste. Most of them did not make it. This cut our pepper harvest severely. I had to buy peppers at a farmers market to supplement our salsa making.

These are only a few of many ways your yields can be affected. Keep garden records of these things to help you plan for next year.

Garden Records-red fire lettuce7. I keep garden records of vegetables I wish I would have planted this year.  Maybe you saw it in someone else’s garden, at the farmer’s market, or in a seed catalog, but it was too late to plant it. WRITE IT DOWN! While it is still fresh in your ind write it down in your garden records or journal. This will help you to remember to plant it next year.

I have a wonderful friend, who owns The Glass Rooster Cannery, here in our area. She is always trying new plants in her garden (mostly heirlooms). I take along a pen and paper and am ready to take notes when I am touring her gardens.  Finding out which varieties are good for canning, pickling, making salsa, etc. is always good information to have.

What vegetables did you see last year that you want to try in your garden this year? Let me know.

What garden records do you keep? Tell me about them below.

 

garden location garden records garden soil gardening vegetable garden
by Nelle 
11 Comments

About Nelle

I am Nelle. I grew up in rural, small town, Ohio. When I was young, I learned a lot about homesteading from my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, 4-H, FFA, and others around me. Now, I’m all grown up, have 6 children of my own, and plan to teach them everything I know. Here on Mama’s Homestead, we talk and write about homesteading, homeschooling, and kidsteading (homesteading with kids). We teach our kids about survival, self-sufficiency, gardening (vegetable, herb, flower), orchard, beekeeping, home keeping, soap making, harvesting, cooking, food preservation, livestock, nature, crafts, homesteading tools and wares, and more… Welcome to my homestead…come and learn with us!

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Comments

  1. SuttonsDaze says: January 25, 2014 at 12:17 pm

    Great ideas! We are planting our first “all out” garden this year. All out meaning more than just 2 items…..lol It’s going to be big, it’s going to be fun and it’s going to be work and keeping a record of it all is a great way to keep track of what worked. Thanks

    Reply
    • Nelle says: January 28, 2014 at 3:31 pm

      What a compliment, thank you for visiting! I wish you lots of luck with your garden this year.

      Reply
  2. Sarah Taylor says: January 28, 2014 at 2:54 pm

    Hey Nelle! My husband found your blog today while looking for other homesteaders in the area. We have just moved from NM to a small piece of land in Ohio. We are expecting baby #6 and homeschool also. I raise Nubian dairy goats and chickens and I hope to raise some hogs this year as well. We keep very similar records for our garden! One of the most helpful things that we have done is set up wholesale accounts with our favorite seed companies. Growing for this’s many people takes a big garden, and getting high quality seeds at a discount sure helps!
    I am sure that gardening here will present many unique challenges that are different from what I was used to in the high desert (no mountain lions or black bear here but so many slugs and deer!!) also water management will be way different.
    I will have to look up the book you suggested “The Impatient Gardener” for some helpful tips!

    Reply
    • Nelle says: January 28, 2014 at 3:29 pm

      I am so glad you took the time to let me know you were here. Welcome to Ohio. I hope you like it here. Congratulations on your little one on the way.
      We are planning to get goats and chickens as soon as we get our livestock barn built. We hope to have it done by fall. We shall see. Nubian is one of the breeds we are considering.
      Which seed companies do you use? I am curious about the discounts. I never really thought to ask. Thanks for the info.
      I have no experience gardening in the high desert, I bet it’s a real challenge.
      Thank you for stopping by, come back soon! Happy Gardening!

      Reply
  3. Sarah Taylor says: January 28, 2014 at 3:54 pm

    We love our Nubians they are a great breed and so friendly. Their milk is very creamy and a high quality Nubian will actually produce as much milk as a Dexter cow, while eating much less.
    My wholesale seed account is through Bakers Creek. They have a very large selection of heirloom organic seeds. Unfortunately they don’t sell tubers or cover crops but they have just about everything else.

    Reply
    • Nelle says: January 28, 2014 at 4:33 pm

      Awesome! Every time I go to the county fair, I see Nubian Goats. They are the ones that are waiting for some love from everyone who passes by. They are so sweet.
      I will definitely be checking out Bakers Creek for our gardening needs. Thank you for the information!

      Reply
  4. Cecile says: February 23, 2014 at 3:01 pm

    This is wonderful. As gardeners with minimal experience, I’m bookmarking this article to study with our family as we grow in this area. (pun not intended :)) And personally, as one who loves to journal and loves to garden, this thorough account inspires me to marry the two and really equip ourselves for the planting journey. Thank you!

    Reply
  5. NancyC says: August 3, 2014 at 9:20 pm

    Keeping a garden journal is a great idea–thanks for sharing your tips!

    Reply
    • Nelle says: August 4, 2014 at 1:31 pm

      Thank you for stopping by, Nancy. Our garden journal is a handy tool we use every year.

      Reply

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Welcome to my homestead!

Hello, I'm Nelle Weaver!
I grew up on a small farm in Ohio and experienced various aspects of homesteading. I learned many skills from my grandparents and parents and from being involved in 4-H and FFA.  
My husband and I write about our simple life here on Mama's Homestead and teach classes on our homestead in central Ohio, where we raise goats, chickens, and rabbits, have an orchard, garden, keep bees, and much more. Read More…

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