Publisher's Synopsis
A garden journal is a diary documenting the progression of your vegetable garden- from planning and planting, to sowing and harvesting. Think of a garden journal and planner as a notebook detailing your day-to-day, week-to-week, and year-to-year gardening activities. This includes the evolution of your garden throughout the growing season or seasons if you have the climate to plant more than one crop cycle. Keeping a comprehensive journal is an important measure of growing a successful garden and avoiding mistakes made one season and eliminating potential problems for the next. The layout and planning sheets provided here can be used to setup your whole garden plot and also for individual garden beds or sections. Plan your garden on the grid page as a first step. Draw a diagram showing layout and spacing of vegetables. If you live in a planting zone that enables year-round gardening use this book as a three-season planner and journal. Otherwise you can record three separate years of gardening. For your journal take into account everything about your vegetable garden including: Weather: Document daily or weekly conditions of temperature, weather patterns, and sun vs. cloud cover. Layout: Note spacing and depth used when planting, or sowing seed varieties. Varieties: List vegetable and flower types and variations and their productivity. Fertilizer: Note fertilizers including compost and soil amendments. How and when did you fertilize? What was the result? Water: Document rainfall amounts and watering procedures, especially in drought conditions. Diseases: Note disease issues that you may encounter and possible solutions for control. Record what did and did not work. Pests: Pay special attention to the type and quantity of pests and solutions for control that you established. Soil: Note your soil conditions. Is there a high content of sand, clay, or shallow gravel? Purchasing an inexpensive soil testing kit will provide readings of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and pH (acidity/alkalinity). Success and failures: List your gardening successes and failures including what you did to prevent or mitigate problems. Projects: Establish what to do in the next week and also next season based on this season. Observations: What have been your commentaries, and impression of your garden at this point? What should you do to improve the garden?
