A Garden Journal

Hi come on in and have a seat here at the Kitchen Table. I am just about to have my afternoon tea, would you like a cup of tea with me? Oh here I want you to try some of my favorite biscotti, you can find the recipe in my new cookbook,
Miz Helen's Kitchen Table.

Some months ago my daughter Robbin told me that my six year old Great Granddaughter Kyleigh was really interested in gardening. I was very excited to know that. I wanted to give her a very special birthday gift that would encourage her to continue with her gardening desires. So I made her a Garden Journal with pictures and a family history of our love for gardening. In her Journal she will have space for her own pictures and history of her garden plots and harvest. What a treasure she will have some day to share with her young child. This is a picture of me in my Grandmothers Bonnet in her garden.

My love for gardening developed when I was very young. My parents were both from families that had large farms. One was a Cotton Farmer and one was a Peanut Farmer. So I guess that I had farming and gardening in my blood. Every summer I would stay for several weeks sometimes one or two months with my Grandmother on the Peanut Farm. She had a large garden and she always let me help her in her garden. She kept a Garden Journal. It looked like a ledger and she wrote in it just about every day. When we would pick the vegetables she would write down how many pints, quarts, or bushels we would bring to her kitchen. I would later learn that she also drew out a garden plot every year. She numbered every row and knew exactly where and what she had planted. It was a great Journal. I still have my Grandmother's Bonnet that I was wearing in that picture, and sometimes I wear it to my garden today. I don't know what ever happened to my Grandmother's Garden Journal, but I do know that it inspired me to keep my own Garden Journal.

If you are just starting to garden with us, I encourage you to shop for a very special ledger that you can make your Garden Journal. It is an invaluable tool for my gardening. At the beginning of a garden season in the spring or fall I begin a new section of the Journal.

The first thing I do is plot the garden. Just draw out your garden. Plan your rows so that you will know exactly what and where you want to plant.

The next section will be the Journal Spread Sheet. We have a column for each of the following : Name of the plant, date planted, row number ( row number from the plot plan), amount planted, harvest date, amount harvested amount preserved, and under the section we add special notes for special needs that may have occurred during the growing season.

I have a section for purchase of seed, growers, and websites.

The Journal is kept year after year. Sometimes we add pictures and other special notes. As you can see a Garden Journal is an invaluable tool.

I have already started my section for our Fall Garden 2010. Look at our last post on July 26th for a list of products that we will be planting. Be sure and let me know about your Garden Journal. Have fun with it and make it a treasure to pass on to someone that loves you very much.

I can't wait to hear about some of your Garden Journal's.

Peace and Joy
Miz Helen