This post contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

Starting on the Right Foot

If you read our post on starting your organic garden, you’ll know that having a plan is a very important part of the process. One great way to create a plan and stay on top of your gardening priorities is creating a garden journal. There are lots of ways to do this (and even pre-made journals made specifically for gardening if you don’t mind spending some money to skip the hassle). There are such things as pre-planned gardens but for the same reason (money!) I stick to creating my own plans ( I also like having one that works with my specific layout nicely).

Step by Step Tutorial

• I don’t know about you, but I’m always about saving money! So, instead of going out and buying a new notebook or journal (which was very tempting because I love journals), I repurposed one I already had on-hand. Because I’m Japanese and love making things cute, I also decided to spruce up what I had a little by decorating my cover with Japanese washi tape.

• Washi tape is incredibly easy to use and fairly inexpensive if you buy in bulk. I use them for everything!

• You can see the finished product below! I decided to go with just one design of tape (I really love the gold leaves on this beautiful floral design!) but you can choose several to spice things up!

• I then added tabs to my notebook by using some Avery shipping labels I already had on hand and cutting them to make the corners rounded. Cottage at the Crossroads uses old manila folders, so you can really get creative with what you have at home to create your tabs!
• You’ll want to create six sections for your notebook: 1) sketch 2) seeds & plants 3) log 4) expenses 5) calendar 6) maintenance. You can also choose to include a tab for your 7) main goals, 8) 1-year garden plan, 9) garden assets & limitations (what current features of your garden will you need to plan around? Or how can you make a seeming limitation into an asset? i.e. too sunny into a good thing by planting sun-loving plants).

• I got this idea from Cottage at the Crossroads, but I started my journal off by noting in the front of it what zone my garden is in and the last spring frost and the first fall frost dates which can be found easily with your zip code on The Old Farmer’s Almanac website. You can find your USDA hardiness zone just as easily by typing in your zip code. As you can see in the picture, I tried to draw my own graph paper into my notebook—don’t make the same mistake I did! I ended up just printing some graph paper later because the squares in my notebook just weren’t big enough!

• It’s definitely not perfect, but here’s the sketch of the permanent features of my garden! I’m sure there are many ways to do this, but I measured out the length x width of the outline of my garden and divided it into the number of squares I had to get my scale. You can just have a set scale though and say one foot of garden space is equal to 1/4 inch for example (if you’re also creating your own grid). Whatever you choose to do, just remember—it doesn’t have to be perfect. The purpose of the sketch is to give you an overall idea of how your garden will be planned out.

• Once I had the sketch of my permanent features, I made a photocopy and sketched onto the copy the specific features I wanted for that coming season (and what plants I wanted to plant). You can also choose to do this with drafting paper and create multiple versions of garden plans to choose the one you like best if you’re still playing around with different styles and ideas. If you didn’t enjoy art class in school and want to skip out on the sketch altogether, you can also take a panoramic photo, or if you have a drone—drone footage of your garden space.

• For the second section of my journal, “seeds & plants,” I glued in an envelope for housing the plant tags from my garden. Plant tags or seed packets are useful to keep since they often have useful information about how to care for the plant and its specific needs (sun vs shade, etc.). On the page next to the envelope, I just labeled the columns, “seeds” and “date planted” but you can use whatever labels you need to organize and keep track of what seeds and transplants you have planted where and when you planted them. You can also use this section to record info about your plants if it’s not already included in your tag/seed packet, and include where you bought your plants/seeds (to remember for next year if you really like how your plants turn out!).

• Next, in the “log” section of your journal I’ve labeled the columns “date” and “what I did.” Keeping a running log of everything that goes on in your garden is really important for referencing back to next year. This is a great space for recording what the weather was like and what wildlife you may have observed. You can treat this section like your diary—who knows what information will be valuable when you’re looking back at your journal next year!

• In the “expenses” tab I just labeled it with “date,” “what,” and “$.” Once again, you can organize it however you like and even include envelopes for holding receipts if that’s easiest for you. I rarely keep receipts since I have digital records of everything so I mainly am keeping this written record to have a physical reminder of how much I’m spending on our garden to help me not go over budget (you can read more about gardening on a budget HERE).

• For my “calendar” tab, I downloaded these free printables from iMom (aren’t they cute?) and just copied and pasted two on a page in a word document (to fit the size of my journal) and printed and pasted them into my journal!

• A calendar will be VERY handy for keeping track of when you planted what, when your frost dates are, when you should begin harvesting, mulching, weeding, etc. With gardening, timing is everything and if you don’t have a well-thought-out calendar and timeline of events, you may forget some important steps that could affect how well your plants do! A calendar is also really great for recording bloom and harvest times for your plants so you know exactly what to expect for next year.

• The maintenance section is mainly for making notes of when you did specific work on your garden so you can remember the last time you did something and can make note of the next time your plants will need something. You can use this space for recording soil test results, what amendments you included to improve the soil, when you last weeded, when you last mulched, what pesticides or herbicides you used and when, and what and when you pruned, etc. As you can see this is a really important section of your journal that you’ll most likely need to reference back to!

Is a Garden Journal Worth It?

• This may seem like a lot, but I guarantee the satisfaction you will get from completing this little project will be well worth it—and you’ll feel so much more organized and prepared for your garden next season! Hope you all will give it a try, and please please feel free to let me know how it goes in the comments or on our Facebook page! 🙂