Why you should keep a garden journal from year to year. Its so important to your garden and your knowledge on what you planted, what you got in return.
Now if you want to go with a fancy app that lets you plan your garden by slotting in this or that, and getting updates on when you should be changing your plantings! Go for it.. I have had ladies sit down with me and whip out the I=pad and show me their pretty gardens to be.
If you want to google free garden planter and lots of garden/homestead blogs will pop up for you and offer you a free one if you join their mailing list and more!
If you want to head to amazon, you can find garden journals for sale, they will have the most amazing detailed pages that you just fill out, if you want that structure, its there for you!
I am going to make a different recommendation..
Get a journal, cheap is fine as long as it’s a hard covered and ideally has a built in page holder. It should not be to big, the hard cover should not be so thick that you can not get a pen to clip on it.
When you work your soil, write it down.. slip in notes on weather, write down what seeds you used (if you have a stapler, just clip the package to the page) if you used it all.. this works great for when you use new kinds. Write down issues with it. Do as many pages for as many plots as you need, make a single page for one thing.
The second thing you ideally need for your farm journal is your camera, if you have one, be it on your phone or be it a digital one.. snap photos every two weeks, weekly is even better and once a month is min.
So remember to grab your garden book and your camera for your coming garden season of 2019. Its going to be a fun year in the gardens. We are going to have weather challenges that will push us but if you feed the soil, if you are willing to learn how to work with some of these challenges, if you are willing to try new plants and adjust your meals plans..
2019 could be our best year yet in on the land!
Just another Day on the Farm 
Included in my garden records, along with the notebook you mentioned, I also have a pad of graph paper where I lay out what went where and how much space it took. Because crop rotation is so important for soil health and insect/disease prevention I start by marking out the garden’s dimensions, then subdivide it into three sections and, by having all of these drawings to consult from years past, I can see what needs to be grown in where. Having the “map” and my notes, it’s always interesting to see how things do when grown side-by-side: )
That’s a great idea for those that want that overview. Hubby loves his grids, I like my photos more 🙂 Thanks for sharing something that works well for you over the years!
Oh hey, this is long before having a cell phone in my pocket, lol. There are lots photos these days; )
Heck, this was long before cell phones even existed; )
LOL, but in 2019 I think most folks have them now 🙂
Paper is a totally different scenario. It’s how I know, right from the planning stage, that I’ll have just enough room for everything, with just enough space to walk but not have exposed soil to dry out or grow weeds. (And there are also photos – real photos – printed on paper with negatives an’ all; )
Don’t get me wrong, I think having photo-documentation of the garden’s a great idea; but having everything down on paper is invaluable for record keeping and crop rotation – comparing from year to year is all right there in one place: )
I’ve kept a garden journal for about 10 years. I look back all the time to get help. I have a small garden and use commercial seedlings. I tape the label sticks into the journal with notes about how well it worked out. I don’t always have lots of choices for commercial purchases, but if something is a huge failure I remember to try something (anything) different. I also draw my garden plot and list of container plants for reference. – Margy
Hi Margy, Good for you.. I can imagine that over ten years you have a lot of data to help you know what works and what does not. I think it really helps to do those drawings in the books for sure.