This is Why You Need a Gardening Notebook
"Thyme" to start writing.
This piece is part of a Going to Seed series called Perennial Goods, where we talk about things you can buy for your garden (and beyond).
Over the last few months of my beginner’s gardening journey, there’s one piece of advice that seems to consistently pop up: the importance of keeping good gardening records so you can refine your strategy. Enter the gardening notebook.
At the Edible Gardening 101 class I attended at the Oxnard Public Library last June, UC Master Gardener Terry Garman suggested creating a gardening journal as a tool to remember when you plant, what you plant and what the weather was like along the way. First and last frost dates are also a perfect thing to keep track of in a gardening journal, says Ojai-based regenerative garden designer Morgan Visalli. And in his latest book The Cook’s Garden, editor, cookbook author and gardening expert Kevin West — who I’m lucky enough to call my new garden writing mentor — goes into even more detail about all of the wonderful things he keeps track of in his pocket-sized notebook: which veggies turned out to be bland, yields per pound of potatoes planted and “lovely natural occurrences” such as when the lightning bugs show up each summer.
Since every day in our new house is, well, new, I have much to record. Each day here brings brand new morning light, unexpected bouts of evening mist and a seemingly never-ending supply of magical surprises — like the reincarnation of the white China roses in our courtyard that we thought were goners, and the hummingbirds who have started resting in our Pepper Tree at dusk every day. I’m still learning where the light is most dappled, and which areas of our yard get full sun.
For this pursuit, I could have used a regular notebook — of which I have many. But I was excited to find something more “official” (and will literally never turn down the chance to buy new stationary). Using the Notes app on your phone to keep track of your watering schedule and how different crops are doing in different seasons is, of course, acceptable. But to me, that feels like it defeats the entire purpose of all of this: to slow down, notice, appreciate and connect with nature sans screen. But hey, you do you.
After searching far and wide for a paper notebook I knew I’d be excited to use, I ended up with a spiral bound waterproof number from the New York Botanical Garden. It allows for five years of record keeping and includes bloom and harvest time prompts, planning checklists and grid pages to sketch crop placement and designs — all things this ultra-beginner sorely needs. It also has illustrations of heirloom tomatoes on the cover. Sold, obviously.
Above, I included some other notebooks that I discovered during my research and liked (including a gorgeous and indulgent one from Smythson that I fully intend to gift myself if and when Going to Seed reaches 1,000 subscribers, hint hint) in case you’re ready to start your own old school planting log, too.