This document provides examples of the types of information to include in a garden journal such as planting dates, weather patterns, pest problems and solutions. It includes sample journal pages tracking seed starters, direct plantings, fertilizer use, weather, pests and successes. The garden journal is intended to record important details about the garden to aid with planning and improving future gardens.
2. • A place to record important information about
your garden that you can use to plan (and
improve!) next year’s garden
• A garden journal may include planting dates,
seed types, weather changes, pictures, etc.
Choose a journal
• Size
• Binder
• Notebook
• Laminated
• Digital app
What is a garden journal?
4. Page 2: Starters Tracking Sheet
Name Variety Place of
Purchase
Date
Germinated
Total Days
Indoors
Date
Transplanted
Sunflowers Teddy Bear Pemberton
Valley
Nursery
March 17 95 May 30
Cucumber Crystal
Apple
Pemberton
Valley
Nursery
March 17 95 May 30
Basil Basil Blend Jackie April 13 47 May 30
Shiso Green Perilla Harvested
from last
year
April 13 47 May 30
6. Page 3: Direct Planting Chart
Name Variety Place of
purchase
Amount Seeds or
starter?
Date
planted
Date
harvested
Successful
?
Lettuce Butter crunch PVN 1 pkg/$2.69 Seeds May 31 June 30 yes
Tomatoes Cherry PVN 4
plants/$2.99
Starter May 30 July 15 yes
Cilantro Santo West Coast
Seeds
1 pkg/$2.69 Seeds May 31 July 20 no
7. Page 3: Fertilizer Record
Date of
purchase
Amount Purchaser Type
May 1, 2016 $50/yard plus
delivery
Sea to Sky Soils Compost soil mix
May 15, 2017 Free/1 truck load Doug’s Farm Cow manure
8. Page 4: Weather Tracker
Date Type of Weather Extra info
April 15, 2017 Heavy Rain Garden flooded
July 28-Aug 5, 2017 Extreme heat +32 Watered garden x2 a day
9. Page 5: Pests!
Date Plant Problem Solution
May 29, 2017 Basil Slugs Weeded around the garden and
nailed copper wire around the
garden bed
All summer, 2017 Tomatoes and
lettuce
Snails Weeded around the garden
10. Page 6: Seed Harvest Record
Seeds: Dragon Tongue Bush Beans
Purchased: West Coast Seeds, May 1, 2016
Harvested: October 15, 2017
11. Page 7: Successes
Harvest:
June 3, 2016 – garlic scapes
July 5, 2016 – garlic cloves
Planted:
September 29, 2016 – 70 cloves of Red Russian garlic
12. Mason Bees
8 mason bee cocoons purchased from
West Coast Seeds in April 2017. Mason
bee house installed and cocoons
released in June 2017. Bee tubes
cleaned in November 2017. 40 mason
bee cocoons successfully cleaned and
now resting in the fridge until Spring
2018.
13. Additional Pages
Do’s and Don’t
• Plant less kale
• Plant less varieties of vegetables
• Continue to plant lettuce under garden bed steps
• Plant more garlic!
Summary of the Season
• The PMN garden was run by 7 volunteers
• Participants were charged $10 per family to be part of the
garden
• Each participants watered the garden for a total of 2 weeks
• Garden season was from May to October
Garden 2017
• Beans
• Curly kale
• Lots of garlic
• Small purple, yellow and orange tomatoes
• Japanese spinach
• Lemon cucumbers