By Jennifer Poindexter
Do you belong to a masses of gardening groups through different social media platforms ? If so , you ’ve probably heard people discuss keep horticulture platter .
But is there a real point to keeping such platter ? In a Bible , yes ! Keeping horticulture records has a number of benefit .
Plus , there are many way you could keep these records to where they can be as wispy or detailed as you wish .
There ’s no one way to keep horticulture records , but I ’m going to deal a few of the benefits for keeping such records and also share a few ways you could go about document your garden .
Here ’s how and why you should keep horticulture records over the years :
Why You Should Keep Gardening Records Over the Years
Have you ever started a garden and wished you could recall particular from the previous year ’s garden ? I intend it pass to us all .
Gardening records can serve you withdraw authoritative things you ’d like to know from twelvemonth to yr . Here are a few good reasons you should deal keep horticulture record :
1. Gardening Records Keep Track of Time
One of the big frustrations in horticulture is when you ca n’t remember when you perform which task the previous year .
By keeping gardening records , you may jot down down dates and time of when you last quiz your soil , when you started seed both indoors or direct sown , when you beganhardening off seedling , and when youtransplanted seedlingsto their permanent growing locations .
Gardening records can also help you get across when specific plants bloomed in previous age , when you inseminate certain plants , and also when each works was harvested at each planting .
These are all good things to know to help you design your gardening season . By take Federal Reserve note on these times , it can help you feel more organized and less overwhelmed .
2. Gardening Records Can Help You Maintain Proper Crop Rotation
If you do n’t practice crop gyration , you probably should . Crop rotationis when you switch plant around in your garden to confuse cuss and diseases .
By implant the same plants in the same domain of the garden year after year , disease form and remain in the soil . plague will also know where to look each year .
However , by traverse where you embed specific crops each year , you ’ll know wherenotto plant the next year .
As a general pattern , you should keep your plants on a three - year revolve hertz . This should be enough time to ensure that all pests and diseases which could harm the plants have been do by , and the area is safe .
3. Gardening Records Serve as a Calendar
Just as gardening record can facilitate you retrieve where crops were plant in former years , it can also facilitate you track engagement for specific pests .
For example , you could mark what month or dayJapanese beetlesappeared in your garden . Over the years , you’re able to compare dates and any annotation you made of specific condition that might have tempt the date .
In my case , Japanese beetles were late in our 2020 growing time of year . However , it made sense because we had an utmost cold-blooded snap in May and June .
Our garden was late that year as well . This is important to observe , so I would n’t assume that Nipponese beetles would always arrive at the clock time they did in 2020 .
By keep solid disc , you should have an idea as to when you should start preventative alimony and become rattling to likely threats in your growing spaces .
4. Gardening Records Help You Remember Varieties
Does it do any goodness to simply state , “ I grew love apple in this location last year . They were really salutary , and I want to grow them again next year ” ?
No , this might not be detailed enough for you to twin your growing experience in the follow years as there are a multitude ofvarieties of tomatoes .
However , if you make notes in your horticulture records that read , “ I grow early girl tomatoes in this fix last class . I plant them on ( insert date ) , and I want to grow them again next twelvemonth for ( insert utilization or reason ) , ” this is a detailed account statement that will help clip your remembering in the undermentioned year as you design your garden .
5. Gardening Records Track Goals
Do you have goals for your garden ? I think most of us do and many of us have to achieve these goals over time due to time and fiscal constraint .
Do n’t lease this discourage you . Instead , habituate gardening record to drop a line down your gardening goals , transgress the goal into realizable footfall , and track your completion of each end .
This way , you do n’t have to commend what you think you wanted to do in previous yr . You simply create a plan and hold yourself accountable by tracking what you complete .
6. Gardening Records Keep You on Track
Gardening record are a key to running an efficient garden . When you love what pest seem and when , you may stay a gradation ahead of them .
When you know when you should start seedlings , inure them off , transplant , and harvest , you have a game plan ready to go when the time of year protrude .
If you have specific goals you ’d care to reach each twelvemonth , they ’re noted in your gardening record . All of this helps your gardening season run more efficiently .
7. Gardening Records Track Weather
We all curb when our first and last expected frost dates are . However , it ’s courteous to have them tape , so we can look for the pattern .
This is important to help us cognize when we should be in the clear of frost to plant our spring and summertime gardens .
Plus , it helps to let us have sex when we can look Robert Frost in our fall garden . All of this helps us to have a better idea of grow conditions which leads to healthy and more fat plants .
8. Gardening Records Track Layouts and Gardening Methods
Have you ever tried to switch the way you grow things ? Sometimes you have practiced results and other clock time you know not to retell a sure raise method with a specific crop .
Plus , there are times when you layout your garden a specific style and either love it or hate it . keep on a criminal record helps you to recall the results of these experiments to ascertain you either recreate them or you avoid them in the future .
This has help my category staggeringly because one class we made our rows go in a unlike guidance than in previous geezerhood . It was a total binge , and we have record to ensure we do n’t waste time with that again .
However , there are also records I keep to remember which case of tomato grows best in a container on my back deck and which love apple varieties do good in the earth or in raise bottom .
horticulture records can help you remember what you ’ve done to serve you have a good growing time of year and forfend wasting unnecessary sentence .
9. Gardening Records Track Moisture
Our final reason why keep gardening track record is important is to cut through moisture . There are certain time of the year your area might obtain an exceptional amount of rainwater .
Other time of the year , you might get drouth . By tracking the different seasons of rain and drought , it can prepare you to water in certain period and know that you should have supernumerary time in other period because you wo n’t have this gardening chore .
My family also uses these times to know when to vacation . If I go out my garden during a time of plenty of rain , I can feel confident that I wo n’t fare home to a numb garden .
However , I have intercourse during periods of drought , I either necessitate to leave my garden in the care of a sept friend or realize that it plausibly wo n’t bring on as expect .
These are a few reasons why taking the meter to make notes about your garden each year can save you metre , money , and frustration in future years .
How to Keep Gardening Records Over the Years
Now that you empathise why horticulture disk are important , get ’s talk over how you may go about keeping such disk .
Here are a few ideas for keeping gardening records :
1. Keep a Gardening Planner
Do you revel keeping a planner ? Whether you buy one specifically for horticulture or just add your records to a current planner you have , this might be a great way for you to keep notes about dates , time , and experiences in one neat location .
Plus , most planners have a calendar and a place for notes . It ’ll be up to you how you layout your gardening records but a planner might be a great way to keep yourself organized without having many freestanding notebook or text file .
2. Keep a Gardening Document
Are you someone who prefer to keep information electronically ? Then try keeping a papers in either Word or in Google Documents .
This is an easy way to keep the notes you desire without guide up any additional space around your home . Plus , you could always look the written document to obtain central information in a hurry .
You might also see store your record as a note in your phone . This way , you’re able to always have the entropy with you . If you ’re tech - favorable , keep your criminal record digitally .
3. Keep a Gardening Spreadsheet
Some multitude expand off of spreadsheets . If you ’re someone who does this , regard keeping your track record in either Excel or Google Sheets .
It ’ll be up to you how you wish to layout your spreadsheet and there may even be a guide to get you commence .
Definitely keep disk in a path that you enjoy . This manner it wo n’t seem like such a chore , and it will be easier for you to keep everything update .
4. Keep a Gardening Journal
When I stroll through storage , I love seeing all the lovely journals . Journaling is a relaxing job for many people .
It can be a way of life to unload your thoughts after a longsighted daytime . If you ’re someone who loves to journal , try out this method for your gardening records .
If you enjoy garden , journaling about it could even be a type of self - care that helps you unwind after a stressful daytime .
5. Keep a Gardening Picture Diary
I got this estimate from my mamma . Every year when she take down her Christmas decorations , she takes image .
The mind is so she can scroll through them on her phone or computer the next yr , so she ’ll remember where everything was used in former years .
This is a great agency to keep lead of your garden as well . you could take impression of tags on plant , plants growing in specific locations , or the order in which plants are originate in your garden . All of this will help you think of , visually , how things were done the previous year .
Plus , you’re able to create an record album on your phone or on sealed website to serve you keep everything unionize , and it wo n’t take up any additional space around your home .
6. Keep a Gardening Binder
Our net method acting for keeping gardening records is a compounding of the approximation listed above . lease ’s say you enjoy take note , type information in a papers or spreadsheet , you relish keeping printed calendar sheets to mark certain things , and you bask keeping images .
If so , get a three - ring binder and organise everything there . you may include tabs to help you come up information quickly .
Plus , you could keep a hard transcript of the documents you make along with digital copy . Again , it ’s important to keep a book of thing you find significant and in a room you bask to insure you remain on top of this chore .
You now have a few ideas as to why keep disc is authoritative . Plus , you bang how you’re able to go about keeping gardening records .
If you feel like this is something you ’d like to do move forward , pick the reasons you ’re performing the task , and judge the method acting you think you ’ll love most .
See if you consider the additional time spend on keep records worth the payoff you see in your garden .
More About Keeping Gardening Records
https://extensiongardener.ces.ncsu.edu/2020/01/journal-2020-winter-piedmont-news/
Click to get at Gardening-Record-Book.pdf
