Keep a Gardener's Diary

ave you ever thought about keeping a gardener's diary to record what you plant and where you plant it? Keeping a diary will help you plan next year's garden by recording which plants grew well and which ones didn't. You can also note which colors do or don't look good together, or which plants overwhelm one another.

With a gardener's diary, you can keep a record of how long the sun shines in different areas of your yard so you can find plants that require the appropriate amount of sunlight. In our yard, the soil is not the same everywhere. We have made do by planting different kinds of plants in different types of soil--and all that gets noted down, too.

I love looking at my yard and looking at all the different plants that people have given me. Who would have thought that plants could be keepsakes? You can make notes in your diary as to who gave you what plants and what meaning they have to you.

Our rhubarb plant is the same one that we had at our home when I was a child, and my mom gave me some of the chrysanthemums that were given to me and planted in her yard when my daughter was born almost twelve years ago.
Walking around the yard I see flowers from my aunt, rosemary from my husband's grandmother, and the young maple tree my daughter grew from a seed several years ago. There are many memories in our small surroundings.

Your diary can be as simple as a spiral notebook or as fancy as a special blank gardener's diary. If you are good at drawing, you can also make sketches of your plants in your diary.

If you end up living in the same place for many years, your gardening diary can be a little piece of history for your family. Your family will cherish those memories for a lifetime.

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Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who publishes the Creative Homemaking Recipe of the Week Club, a weekly newsletter that contains quick, easy dinner ideas and money-saving household hints. To subscribe send a blank e-mail message to: FreeRecipes-subscribe@egroups.com. Visit her at her site Creative Homemaking and in the Home and Garden section of Suite 101.