Organization
I admire gardeners who excel at documentation. Garden journals, spreadsheets, detailed maps and planting calendars- I have tried all of them at one time or another in the 30 plus years I have been making gardens, and most were as short lived as my Eryngiums. I know gardeners who diligently keep daily records of high and low temperatures, rainfall, wind speed and direction, moon phases...you name it. I was triumphant the year I actually recorded the date I sowed seeds, and the date they germinated.
Several years ago I went to a plant swap that included books and there, pristine and untouched,
was this impressive hard bound garden journal. I had seen it before in a mail order catalog and knew it was pricy; I snatched it up without even looking at the rest of the book offerings-here was the answer to my lackadaisical record keeping.!
10 years at a glance ! Garden maps !
Several years ago I went to a plant swap that included books and there, pristine and untouched,
was this impressive hard bound garden journal. I had seen it before in a mail order catalog and knew it was pricy; I snatched it up without even looking at the rest of the book offerings-here was the answer to my lackadaisical record keeping.!
10 years at a glance ! Garden maps !
Predictably, it remains unused on my bookcase . Whats the point in mapping a garden I change every year? The book has the heft of an encyclopedia volume , and no weatherproofing-not something I could carry around the garden unless I rigged up a desk on wheels. Looks nice on the bookcase though. Clearly the gardener who offered this at the plant swap had similar issues to mine.
I am happy to say that I did eventually develop a very rustic system of documenting my garden. It's a two part affair, consisting of organizing plant labels and written records. I gave myself permission to write sporadically, and I recognized that I am a list maker -sometimes self awareness is needed in the garden. I bought a spiral notebook, and simply started making lists of things I wanted to accomplish , and crossed them out when completed.This is a de facto history as long as I remember to put the month and year on each page. I like writing in pencil, so that is what I use.
And here we have the Tag-Bags ..Each named area in the garden has it's own bag. When I plant something the tag goes in it's bag. If I move something, I move the tag too. A few times a year I go through the bags and toss the stuff I dug up . The bags are binder-clipped together and hang from a nail over the workbench in my garage.
This fall I am adding a "Dead or Discarded" bag...I expect I will be horrified by the volume of it's contents.
Any record you can maintain is a good record in my book. I keep an excel spreadsheet into which I log information from plant tags, the source of my purchase, planting date and, sometimes, comments on plant performance. However, tags tend to accumulate for awhile before I get around to attending to my log and updates (e.g. striking lines through entries for dead plants) are haphazard at best. Still, when I can't remember the name of that great plant on one corner or another, at least I have a place to start looking...
ReplyDeleteKris, you are impressive. I guess I have too many spreadsheets to deal with at the office..don't want to look at them at home.
DeleteOh My, it never occurred to me that my Garden To Do Lists could have been used as a record of what I've accomplished in the garden. That is pretty brilliant. I'm just dreadful at documentation too. I have a couple of ziploc bags of tags, as well as several four-inch pots outside on my potting bench, all full of tags. I've been thinking I really should get organized this winter.
ReplyDeleteThe to-do list notebook is one of the best things I've done..wish I'd come up with it 20 years ago !
DeleteI wonder if I should adopt your tag bag approach. It has merit. Currently mine are taped into the pages of several notebooks. I seem to be able to remember plant purchases roughly cronolicially so it gives me a place to start looking. On the event of taping in new tags (usually a early winter task) I try to go through and draw a line throughout dead and dug things. I try not to dwell or it could become hugely depressing.
ReplyDeleteLoree, I was putting them in the pockets of spiral notebooks, but that really had no rhyme or reason-I'd look through them and wonder were the hell the stuff was! Since the bags each represent an area of the garden at least I could relate the tag to a geographical location. You bring up a good point with the chronological issue--I should write a date on the label before I bag it. You've improved my system !
DeleteHahaha...I totally know how you feel...I'm perenially unable to keep real records...aside from the pot of plant labels (a surprisingly large amount). My only real records are the hundreds of photos I constantly take...and my blog :-)
ReplyDeleteScott, if I had photos like yours I wouldn't care if I kept records !
DeleteI have that gardener's journal and I actually used to write in it. A few years ago the hard drive crashed on my last laptop and with it went my excel spreadsheet listing all the plants in my garden. After that I gave up keeping any kind of records and now just toss all the plant tags in a brown paper bag. Occasionally I rummage through it in hopes of finding a cultivar name. Last year I made "the list" as a way to prioritize what I needed to do. Maybe I'll do that again. Or maybe not.
ReplyDeleteI am so impressed with your tag bags for each area and dead plant bag ideas. I shall certainly copy them. Mind you, an ever-growing dead plant bag will be a bit dispiriting. I, too have a beautiful gardener's journal which is still in the pristine state that it was when it was given me 2 years ago.
ReplyDeleteChloris