I have always kept a gardeners journal. It provides me with great satisfaction to sit down in a comfortable chair in some quiet corner of the house and celebrate or lament in my diary as to what the garden produced this last year and the disappointments that some plants just didn’t live up to their potential. I pontificate on my hopes for the new growth in the upcoming season. I beam at the latest additions nestled amongst old favorites and the prospects they hold for next spring. My gardener’s journal is a wonderful way to personalize our outdoor living space through words rather than just personalizing through disheveled fingernails, sweaty brows and sore knees throughout the years. It is documentation for family members and friends to read about a vital aspect of our home, the garden.

Initially what interested me in gardening was my grandmother. While on vacation we would walk down the streets in Belize and she would spout off the names of these amazing tropical plants as if they were growing back in her Colorado yard. We could be in any climate on any continent and she would be able to tell me the names of most every plant we’d run across. I aspired to be relatively well informed on plants just as she is. I am still striving to learn and retain my garden knowledge and I find that keeping a garden journal is an extremely helpful tool that adds in my ongoing education.

I usually start with a vision in my journal, how I see a section of my yard and my plans to transform it. I sketch out the space with the buildings, walls, fences and walkways - any hardscape that is permanently there. Using colored pencils, I then imagine what plants would work well in that space and sketch it all out in my journal. This method is much simpler than actually planting species and then later realizing they will never grow in the allotted plot. If you do not draw, then cut and paste pictures into your journal.

The planning stages are a great use for a gardener’s journal. What will work well in the space? What colors go together nicely? Which textures play off one another well? How large will any given plant get when it is mature? Is a plant invasive? Does the area get a good deal of sun or shade? Is it boggy or arid soil? These are all important questions that are easily addressed and then properly mapped out in a journal.

Once I put plants into the ground I also record them into my journal. This is helpful in that, if I forget what I planted and where I planted it, I have a reference point to go and find the answers I seek. It is also useful if the plant ends up being unhappy and should need to be transplanted. I now know not to ever put that particular plant in that area in the future. Since a lot of gardening is layering and adding, this is invaluable to a cluttered gardener’s mind as the years go on.

I plan for the future of my garden by constantly ripping out pages of catalogs and newspapers showcasing plants that attract my attention. At a later date, I can dig out that clipping of the perfect chartreuse vibernum plant and viola! Envisioning future goals for your yard is a great use of a gardener’s journal. For instance, do you want a water feature, a sitting area, a fire pit perhaps? What about a vegetable patch for next fall? Brainstorm with a journal in hand and come up with a feasible plan.

A gardener could even keep his or her journal organized by the month. Highlighting tasks that should be conquered each month and typical weather patterns to expect.

A journal is a lovely way to remember a plant your children gave you for a mother’s day gift and where it was planted. Or maybe a tree that was grounded in celebration of a child’s birth or any other plant that has a special meaning to the gardener’s that live in the home should be recorded in the journal. It will provide a living oral history for the plants.

Keeping a journal may invigorate gardeners to continue to be excited about their outdoor space. It often gives me an added sense of well-being to ponder that the plan I am embarking on might just turn out like something I’d see in a magazine or a coffee table book. Whether a gardener’s diary is a leather bound book or a spiral pad, its purpose is to record cherished memories, plans, and even disappointments. A gardener’s journal is as personal and private as any other diary meant to trace the days of a person’s life. The only difference is that it is a testimony to the earth that frames your home and all of the sweat and tears you have sprinkled in the dirt along the way.