Why You Need a Homemade Gardening Diary and How to Make One

Since you’re reading this article, you’re probably one of the many vegetable or flower gardeners across the United States. Many people enjoy gardening as a means of getting sunshine and exercise. But the bottom line is, how well your flowers or vegetables grow. Above all, the results are what counts when you’re gardening.

If you could remember what specific methods you used, what products you used to combat weeds and diseases, or what fertilizers you used that made your flowers or vegetables grow beautifully, these facts can help you make your gardening experience just as successful next year. Or, maybe you want to remember some “Don’t Do” things from this year’s gardening experience. The best way to remember these facts is to record them in a homemade Gardening Diary.

A Homemade Gardening Diary can provide you with daily notes on many items that pertain to your flower or vegetable garden. Afterall, successful gardening
is more than just plopping some seeds or plants into the soil and expecting them grow. It involves proper location of the garden, fertilization, weed control, a watering schedule, and much more. Once those notes are recorded, you can look back on them later and reuse this helpful information.

A Homemade Gardening Diary can also be used to plan your gardens for the upcoming planting season as well. You can refer to your past daily notes and take them into consideration when you plan your flower or vegetable gardens.

So, now that you know WHY you need a diary to record daily notes from your growing activities in, how do you make a homemade one? The answer depends on your personal preference. Whether you prefer to use your personal computer to keep a diary on, or whether you prefer the traditional pen-and-paper way. Actually, carrying a small notebook and a pen with you to your flower or vegetable garden would be the handiest way to record notes on the spot. A spiral notebook or a ringed binder to keep the pages from your day’s gardening activities would work well.

But, if you prefer to use your personal computer instead, a laptop is handy because it’s portable and it can be used anywhere.

Basically, you’ll need to mark the date and your notes for the day in your homemade Gardening Diary. An example of a day’s page could be:

“May 16: The frost danger is finally over for our neck of the woods. So today I planted Peas and Leaf Lettuce in the south corner of the vegetable garden. I partially covered the lettuce up with a tarp to protect it from too much sun.”

You can also write down the weather for that day, the phase the moon is in, (this can be especially helpful if you plant by the phases of the moon), the temperature, and the humidity, if you prefer details that relate to your flower or vegetable garden.

You can even add maps, graphs, and photos to your homemade Gardening Diary to make it even more detailed and personal.

Here are some more suggestions for other information you may want to include in your diary:

1. Which Flowers or Vegetables Grew Well, and Their Locations

2. Which Flowers or Vegetables Grew Poorly, and Their Locations

3. The Types of Soil In Your Yard

4. Problems You Had With Pests And Diseases

5. Methods Used for Eradicating Pests and Diseases, and The Results

6. Watering Schedules

7. Locations of Flower and Vegetable Gardens

8. Types of Fertilizers You Used

9. Best Methods For Tilling the Soil, Planting, Et Cetera

10. Worst Methods For Tilling the Soil, Planting, Et Cetera