Keep a garden journal as a garden record, reference and resource full of factual information but pack it full of personal garden design ideas and inspiration, too.

Garden journaling advice usually concentrates on the practical, useful information to be recorded and the mechanics of keeping it all together. (See my earlier Keeping A Garden Journal for the basics.) Yes, the main purpose of maintaining a garden journal is to write down an ongoing record of what you planted, when you planted it, and where you planted it. This provides an up to date reference list you can refer to whenever you need to know about a particular plant or planting area. But a garden journal is a personal thing and it can be much more inspiring than that.

How to Organize a Garden Journal

You can start a garden journal at any time of year, but January is a logical time to begin a garden journal if you have never kept one before. How and what to record is up to you. You could set it up as a planner, an organizer, or a diary; you could organize it by season, or by planting area. You could make a section for planting plans and photos and notes for each planting area in your yard, a section for plant purchases, and a section for reference information such as plant tags, nursery handouts, articles you have found. But whatever you do, be sure to include a section on Inspiration.

Record Keeping: Plant Lists, Calculations and Data

The plant lists and other factual records are definitely useful. You may want to continue using the same tulip again next year and will need to know its name next fall when you buy tulips again. It’s good to know if you used three or four cubic yards of mulch last year, and so on. Recording this kind of data fsaves mental energy and frees your mind up for imagining the garden you ultimately want.

Take and Save Panoramic Garden Photos

Panoramic photos (or wide angle shots) reveal both the good points and flaws of your flower garden design. Photos taken over time will show how well your garden develops over the summer. Quick sketches and plans along with weekly or monthly notes are good, but a series of photographs taken from the same vantage point speaks louder than words. In midwinter, there is no better way to reach an "Ahah!" moment of clarity and inspiration than by looking at those old photos.

Collect Garden Design Tips and Inspiration

Keep inspirational pieces: notes, photos, post cards and articles about gardens that delight you. To me, the collected inspiration section is just as important as the nuts and bolts of recorded facts and figures and the sometimes unforgiving photos of my own garden. If you are just beginning, you might find some useful bits in my Garden Design Ideas Tips and Inspiration... article.

Develop Your Personal Garden Style

Your garden journal will reflect your own taste. My garden journal, for example, holds my personal selection of beautiful plant combinations, charming cottage garden vignettes, the “perfect” gate or bench or sun dial, and explosively bold modern planting schemes along with strikingly executed traditional designs. I’ll never copy these exactly, at least not in my current garden, but these dream photos and ideas do influence some of my own gardening choices.

Use the inspirational garden section of your garden journal to dream, but put it to practical use, too. Take the photo to the garden center and ask if they have “something like this” – the salesperson will love you for that! And, there is nothing wrong with copying from the best.

This Winter, Dream Your Best Flower Garden Ever

So as you peruse the plant catalogs or gaze longingly at the garden magazines, keep an eye out for the bits that particularly inspire you and make a personal record of them in your garden journal. Snap photos on garden tours, save postcards from visits to public gardens, clip or print out an article now and then. Your garden journal is a great place to accumulate these snippets (or centerfold spreads) so you can refer to them when you are in the planning stages of another garden or in the midst of reworking an existing planting. And, need I add, having them around to help dream about your garden sure helps the winter go by faster.

You might also enjoy More Garden Design Ideas Tips and Inspiration...

Happy Gardening!

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Copyright December 12, 2006 Barbara Martin All Rights Reserved

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