Bailey Van Tassel

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woman journaling about her garden
21 Sep 2021
Gardening, Uncategorized

What To Write in a Garden Journal & 5 Garden Journals to Shop

I started keeping a garden journal when I was first planning out the basics of what plants I was going to plant. I sketched out my raised beds and then researched spacing for each plant, hand drawing them in. Thus began my garden journal journey! I didn’t realize how much I would need the notes eventually, but now journaling about the garden is crucial for things like crop rotation when to start seeds, what worked and what didn’t from season to season.

The preferred method of keeping a garden journal for me is in a blank notebook or a one with grid marks. I like to add in my own info, as opposed to buying a notebook that has created categories for me. However, many people love pre-made journals, so we’ve found some for you!

What to write about in a garden journal?

  1. The season you’re in
  2. What plant you’re planting and in what form (as a seed, transplant, or cultivar)
  3. The date of direct sowing or transplanting
  4. The germination rate
  5. The harvest date
  6. Your harvest yeild
  7. Notes (thinks like pests, fertilizers, weather, etc.)
  8. Where you placed the plants in your beds

That about covers it for me! I like to simply look season to season and reference what did well, when I planted, and how much I planted. Oh, I also love to note companions and location – I usually do a little sketch which is both fun and useful.

As for a garden journal that is premade and categorized for you, we found some! Some of these garden journals have all the categories, but also have some room for design and some info on gardening. It’s all up to you. See if you can find which one of these I personally would buy :).

Great Garden Journals to Buy:

  1. Tyler Thrasher ‘Grow a Damn Plant Journal’

This is a great and specific garden journal for detailed record keepers. Excellent for indoor plants too.

2. Floret Flowers ‘Inspirational Garden Journal’

Floret is flawless, right? Right. This journal is great because it gives some guidance and context.

3. Papier ’The Secret Garden’

4. Amazon ’The Gardener’s Logbook’

5. Amazon Scribble & Dot Blank Dotted Journal

I love how this journal is blank but has dotted grids for planning. I would probably use this one above all others.

The garden journal is simply a way for you to track what you’re doing and give your future self some guidance when your season rolls around again. There is no right or wrong way to do it, and I have many friends who use theirs as sketch books or simply list-keepers of what dates they planted.

Enjoy your garden journal journey my friends! If you have a system or journal that you love, let me know in the comments!

TAGS:garden journalgardeningorganic gardeningraised bed garden
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Hi I’m Bailey

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There is no better strategy than to get to know your own garden, seasons, weather, and microclimate. No reading, no influencer, no tv show knows better. To start, deep dive into your specific zip code’s US hardiness zone. If you’re international, Google your city with “hardiness zone” tacked on and see where that gets you. Next, get to know your zip code’s monthly weather averages, which is even better than the broad hardiness zone info. A zone 9 in Southern California versus South Carolina is very different because of humidity, storms, pests, etc. Frost dates are cool to know as well, but with time, *you* will be able to tell if it’s going to be a cold March or a mild one, and if planting after Mother’s Day has ever led you wrong or instead always been the perfect timing. What you’re looking to know is this: when will my seeds/seedlings germinate or thrive best for the time they’re outside? Will there be enough sun and heat for my spring/summer crops, or enough cool but not too cold for my fall/winter veg? It’s about 90 days that you need, and then if you’re starting seeds inside, that can get you a bonus 2 month head start. All seeds are different but these are good generalizations. There is simply nothing that can beat your experience, and that my friends is what makes gardening so beautiful, so intuitive, so humbling, and also so confidence building. Lean in.
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There is no better strategy than to get to know your own garden, seasons, weather, and microclimate. No reading, no influencer, no tv show knows better.

To start, deep dive into your specific zip code’s US hardiness zone. If you’re international, Google your city with “hardiness zone” tacked on and see where that gets you.

Next, get to know your zip code’s monthly weather averages, which is even better than the broad hardiness zone info. A zone 9 in Southern California versus South Carolina is very different because of humidity, storms, pests, etc.

Frost dates are cool to know as well, but with time, *you* will be able to tell if it’s going to be a cold March or a mild one, and if planting after Mother’s Day has ever led you wrong or instead always been the perfect timing.

What you’re looking to know is this: when will my seeds/seedlings germinate or thrive best for the time they’re outside? Will there be enough sun and heat for my spring/summer crops, or enough cool but not too cold for my fall/winter veg? It’s about 90 days that you need, and then if you’re starting seeds inside, that can get you a bonus 2 month head start. All seeds are different but these are good generalizations.

There is simply nothing that can beat your experience, and that my friends is what makes gardening so beautiful, so intuitive, so humbling, and also so confidence building.

Lean in.

3 days ago
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Goes to the beach to play, comes home with driftwood branches for the garden✨. Apparently it was the highest tide in 35+ years causing all this debris to be washed up on the beach. I saw the perfect 5’ curved branches and just had to whip up some pea trellises! There’s nothing like the feeling of hard work done by your own hands.
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baileyvantassel
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Goes to the beach to play, comes home with driftwood branches for the garden✨.

Apparently it was the highest tide in 35+ years causing all this debris to be washed up on the beach. I saw the perfect 5’ curved branches and just had to whip up some pea trellises!

There’s nothing like the feeling of hard work done by your own hands.

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baileyvantassel
baileyvantassel
•
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House hunting priorities went from ‘open floor plan’ to ‘open land’ after I started gardening. I didn’t have this passion when we got married – my poor husband.

It’s a tall order in Southern California and arguably not a thing unless you’re the multi-millionaire kind of wealthy (we’re not). So, I wanted to leave the state. Also not a thing when you own a business here. So, I wanted just enough space for a few garden boxes.

On the listing for this house, there was no shown space for a garden. But we came anyways, and found this empty patch of mulch.

Time, vision, and a dedication to the dream ☁️. I also had like three other versions of this space before this one, just to keep me gardening well before I had raised beds. Who was around when I built berms??

Any garden design questions? Leave them here and I’ll answer them all 👇🏼

#gardendesign #raisedbeds #kitchengarden

1 week ago
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Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of her own (for writing of course). But I too believe that every woman should have a room of her very own - a space for her dream to be worked at. I didn’t even know I was building mine the first time around, and ever since that first garden have fought to keep one. For me, the garden is where I can impose however much or little of myself. It can be wild or kept, and often I have to dance with factors far outside myself just to keep it going. I realize too that I live in a place in my own mind often, and then bits of real life replicate that dreamy space. Tiny present moments that create the feelings of contentment and peace will match up with the little world I’m striving to create externally. And I have come to realize that our rooms - whether indoors or outside, or within a journal, are vessels. We enter with our changing moods, coloring the walls with our predispositions. Each day, with these little ones by my side, I hope to showcase more and more of a world where we can build houses by our own hands and hearts - solidly on foundations of hope, perseverance, resilience, optimism, joy, commitment, authenticity, and boundary-less love. The world begs for your youness, and that is it. For you to create out here what is also in there. Beautiful outfit: @thisisthegreat_ 💘
Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of her own (for writing of course). But I too believe that every woman should have a room of her very own - a space for her dream to be worked at. I didn’t even know I was building mine the first time around, and ever since that first garden have fought to keep one. For me, the garden is where I can impose however much or little of myself. It can be wild or kept, and often I have to dance with factors far outside myself just to keep it going. I realize too that I live in a place in my own mind often, and then bits of real life replicate that dreamy space. Tiny present moments that create the feelings of contentment and peace will match up with the little world I’m striving to create externally. And I have come to realize that our rooms - whether indoors or outside, or within a journal, are vessels. We enter with our changing moods, coloring the walls with our predispositions. Each day, with these little ones by my side, I hope to showcase more and more of a world where we can build houses by our own hands and hearts - solidly on foundations of hope, perseverance, resilience, optimism, joy, commitment, authenticity, and boundary-less love. The world begs for your youness, and that is it. For you to create out here what is also in there. Beautiful outfit: @thisisthegreat_ 💘
Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of her own (for writing of course). But I too believe that every woman should have a room of her very own - a space for her dream to be worked at. I didn’t even know I was building mine the first time around, and ever since that first garden have fought to keep one. For me, the garden is where I can impose however much or little of myself. It can be wild or kept, and often I have to dance with factors far outside myself just to keep it going. I realize too that I live in a place in my own mind often, and then bits of real life replicate that dreamy space. Tiny present moments that create the feelings of contentment and peace will match up with the little world I’m striving to create externally. And I have come to realize that our rooms - whether indoors or outside, or within a journal, are vessels. We enter with our changing moods, coloring the walls with our predispositions. Each day, with these little ones by my side, I hope to showcase more and more of a world where we can build houses by our own hands and hearts - solidly on foundations of hope, perseverance, resilience, optimism, joy, commitment, authenticity, and boundary-less love. The world begs for your youness, and that is it. For you to create out here what is also in there. Beautiful outfit: @thisisthegreat_ 💘
baileyvantassel
baileyvantassel
•
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Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of her own (for writing of course).

But I too believe that every woman should have a room of her very own – a space for her dream to be worked at.

I didn’t even know I was building mine the first time around, and ever since that first garden have fought to keep one. For me, the garden is where I can impose however much or little of myself.
It can be wild or kept, and often I have to dance with factors far outside myself just to keep it going.

I realize too that I live in a place in my own mind often, and then bits of real life replicate that dreamy space. Tiny present moments that create the feelings of contentment and peace will match up with the little world I’m striving to create externally.

And I have come to realize that our rooms – whether indoors or outside, or within a journal, are vessels. We enter with our changing moods, coloring the walls with our predispositions.

Each day, with these little ones by my side, I hope to showcase more and more of a world where we can build houses by our own hands and hearts – solidly on foundations of hope, perseverance, resilience, optimism, joy, commitment, authenticity, and boundary-less love.

The world begs for your youness, and that is it. For you to create out here what is also in there.

Beautiful outfit: @thisisthegreat_ 💘

2 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
4/4

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