How to Make a Gardening Journal

Step-by-Step Guide

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   Step 1: Decide what purpose you want your gardening journal to fulfill.

   This could be a more casual record of your activity or a repository of essential information.
   
   If you are a more casual gardener who merely wants to look back and see what you've done, a simple diary will suffice.
   
   If you are a more serious gardener, especially someone hoping to use or sell produce from your garden, keeping a gardening journal will be an essential part of planning your future activity.
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   Step 2: Choose a journal format that suits your purpose.

   For a simple journal, use a notebook or diary, or even graph paper if you just want to record planting dates.
   
   For a more serious journal, choose a large binder to which you can add paper and pouches for seeds.
   
   Electronic formats are also an option.
   
   For a diary-like journal on a computer, use a word processing program and create a new page or file for each entry.
   
   For a journal with measurements or statistics, use a data organization program like Microsoft Excel.
   
   There are also apps available for smartphones, such as Garden Pro and Master Gardener. , These may be chronological, topical, or practical.
   
   You may choose to have a section for each growing season, or to divide your journal into plant types.
   
   Additionally, you might have different sections for seed notes, weather notes, and financial data.
   
   In all cases, you can use each section either as a diary or as a folder for information. ,, You will want to be able to bring your journal into your garden. , Leave space after each entry so that you can come back later and add notes or edit what you have written. ,
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   Step 3: Divide your garden journal into sections.

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   Step 4: Leave space in your new sections for non-text items such as seed samples

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   Step 5: diagrams and pictures of your garden.

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   Step 6: Cover your gardening journal with a book cover or plastic lamination so that it can safely get wet and dirty.

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   Step 7: Begin entering information

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   Step 8: such as description of a day's work or planting dates into the appropriate sections of the garden journal.

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   Step 9: Let your gardening journal evolve as the growing season goes on

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    Step 10: adding new sections

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    Step 11: including a second volume

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    Step 12: inserting additional paper.

Detailed Guide

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