The Surprising Pleasures of a Garden Journal

Perhaps the most useful garden book you will ever read is your own.

Since 1990, I’ve kept a garden journal. In it I’ve recorded when I’ve pruned, fertilized, planted and acquired plants. I’ve also made diagrams of the garden and commented on how the garden looks and feels at various stages.

While I could live without my journal and my garden would grow without it, I often find it useful and interesting to peruse, noting how things change and how things stay the same.

Take the time to start a garden journal, and you’ll probably find it has immeasurable benefits.

Seal Beach gardener Gary Putnam’s 22-year-old garden journal is an old friend and invaluable gardening tool.

“One of the best reasons to keep a journal is that it builds your awareness of what goes on in the garden over the course of a year and gets you focused on what you’ve done and what you still want to do,” he says.

Putnam uses his journal to answer basic questions about his yard that are necessary for successfully growing plants, such as sun exposure and temperature. His journal also provides a record of what performs well in his garden and what doesn’t, and when and how he fertilizes plants.

At times his journal has even calmed worries about plants that seem to be ailing.

“Two winters ago I wrote about my pentas and how after a couple of months of cold, it collapsed but came back again in June,” he says. “Last year when it started looking bad in winter, I was comforted to read that the same thing had happened the previous year.”

Don’t let a garden journal intimidate you.

“Keep the journal simple; it doesn’t have to be anything fancy,” says Putnam. “My first is just an old composition book, which I find charming. My second is also simple, although it has a garden-related cover.”

Your notations don’t have to be long. Just a brief note about the weather in January and whether the camellias are flowering will give you important information in years to come. Notes on rainfall--or lack of it--are also useful, as well as when frost hits and what kind of damage the Santa Ana winds wreak on tender plants.

Some things to include in your garden journal:

* Vital statistics on plants you’re growing, including height, spread, foliage characteristics, flower color and blooming season.

* Information on plants seen in other gardens that you want to grow and tips from other gardeners on growing them.

* Notes from garden books and lectures.

* Information on work you’ve done in the garden, including planting, seeding, fertilizing, mulching and pruning.

* Garden tasks that you want to accomplish.

* Comments on the weather and how plants are doing throughout the year.

* Diagrams of the garden or the garden of your dreams, including pictures of gardens you admire.

* Photos of your garden as it progresses.

* Virtually anything about the garden that pops into your mind on any given day, including a brief mention of how much you like a certain plant.