Gardening Journals

[Munch]

Morning all,

My sister bought me a lovely gardening journal for my birthday, from Paperchase no less!

Now.... It has four dividers in it, unmarked. Each section has lined paper, plain paper and grid paper, along with plastic zippy up bit for seeds I assume (no where near big enough lol!)

I would take an educated guess that each section would be for each season.

I would like to know if grapes use them and if so how do you make the most of them.

For example what do you use each section for, and what do you record in it?

I think it would be really helpful but cant get my head around where to start

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Ta Muchly x

[di]

I got one from the kiddies a couple of Christmas' ago...afraid I use it fairly badly
You're right,the sections are for the Seasons...or at least they are in mine as they're marked,but you could use it as you wish...maybe each section could be for each family of crops?
I find since I've had mine,I'm great at recording everything at the start of a season but as things busy up I tend to forget about it,so I have a very accurate record of where and when things were planted but not how well they did or didn't do.

[zazen999]

I have started using mine this season; although things DO get busy I found that having to take notes of all the sowings and harvests at my schools last year for the record made me much better at keeping records of my own.

I also use it to note down which varieties I'm growing; and any trials I am doing, and harvests of each, and I use the envelopes to house empty seed packets rather than any with seeds still in, mainly to record the sow/harvest times. I used to cut the seed packet up and stick it to the pages so that I had that record of the original instructions for future reference...but that book didn't have pockets to put them in. I might go back to that actually, it's very enjoyable!

I also take photos at work, so I use it to record which varieties I want to take photos of as I go, and when I took them....

Just keep it with you when you do stuff - you will soon work out how you want to use it.

[Bren In Pots]

For example what do you use each section for, and what do you record in it?

I use a journal but ignore the season sections. This is what works for me Munch, first section is my purchases, next is record of when I've sown my seeds, I add to that when they've sprouted and etc, last bit is my crop rotation.
Mines got a zippy bit and that gets used for receipts for stuff like the propagator and auto vent.

[northepaul]

I have been given two of these in the past, although not a paperchase one, I am afraid I also dont use it well - I do the plans etc, then forget to add anything else.

However I was given a paperchase recipe journal for christmas, which I love - I stick recipes in that I find in mags, and also write any I make up or copy out (for instance from here) Its really useful. Whether the paperchase one would be used more I dont know?

[Sylvan]

Ooh, those sound interesting (especially the grid paper pages).

I've been using A4 diaries from £1 shops, along with lots of loose pieces of paper that end up making them twice as thick as they ought to be.

[Jeanied]

Gosh you all sound like lovely, organised people.
*wanders off, vowing to sort myself out a bit more...

[Bren In Pots]

This site's got PDF downloads for different journal pages as well as some pretty seed packets.

Printables | D&G Gardens and Crafts

[Sylvan]

*drags self reluctantly away from that site*

Thanks for the link Bren.

[Headfry]

For the past 10 years or so I have used tiny but nice note books, each year I seem to run out of pages, possibly because I now write about my 'girls' as well as the plot.
This year I saved up and bought a lovely burgundy filo fax......perfect as I can add pages and all manner of inserts (even a mirror!) each year I can remove the previous years pages if wished. I love it, not cheap and Mr HF had to help talk me into it - but I love my journal - can even get 'zip-lock' sections for .....whatever? seeds? plant tags? etc
I have sections for recipes, pressed leaves, photos, sowing dates, plot layout plans, even (when I can get them) my cats foot prints! ok so I am nuts but hey it is my little book