Kem Ormond’s vegetable garden: The benefits of keeping a gardening diary

If you're artistically inclined, you can add drawings to your gardening journal. Photo / Unsplash, Pure Julia

Kem Ormond is a features writer for The Country. She’s also a keen gardener. This week, she’s writing about the benefits of having a gardening journal.

If you are new to vegetable gardening, it is quite a good idea to keep a diary to record as much information as you can about your journey.

If you are an old hand at it, it can be fun to document your vegetable gardening achievements!

While you can store the information on your computer, I think there’s something more tactile and earthy about a physical diary and having it tucked away in your little garden shed.

A garden diary is the place to record any gardening activities you have undertaken during the season.

It will help make you a better and more observant gardener.

By recording your tasks, along with unexpected results, you will be able to manage your vegetable garden more easily and build your knowledge from season to season.

It is a good idea to record details such as the varieties that liked the conditions under which they were planted, and the feed used for the plants.

It’s also helpful for keeping track of where your main crops have been planted for crop-rotation purposes.

Note when you have your first frost, as this will be a good reminder for the following season.

Having a gardening diary will also help with planning ahead to optimise crops and narrowing down your seed order.

It’s also a great place to store details on your suppliers.

Keeping notes on what insects or diseases have affected your plants will help you be more organised next season.

It is also fun to keep a running weight total from your main crops, such as potatoes and tomatoes, and compare it with the following year’s crop.

You can then work out what you did right or wrong!

Your journal is a great place to store snippets of articles or ideas that you have cut out from papers and magazines.

It is also a place to keep your seed packets and plant tags, which often provide a description of your vegetable plant as well as its growing requirements and usually an illustration or photo.

If you are artistically inclined, you may like to add a few sketches of plants, just for your enjoyment.

It can be a reminder when you need to give your tools a good oil, when to turn your compost, when to feed your vegetable plants and when to sow seeds.

The main thing is that you don’t stress out over maintaining the journal to the point where you don’t enjoy the process.

Although it is a good idea to get into the habit of regularly recording your gardening activities, your journal or diary should be (and will be) a great learning tool.