Garden Journaling

With a day last week in the 70s, never was the importance and benefit of my garden journaling brought home. All the hoopla everywhere reminds me how short our memories are. Thank goodness for the journal! There, in my pencil scrawl was an entry in early January of 2005 noting a temperature of 71.

I started semi-seriously garden journaling in 2003 and each year when I look back, I am so glad that I made the effort. Limited though those efforts are….(I have no entries for May, for instance…and very little through June and July…I’m in the garden during those times and writing falls to the wayside), they are a wealth of information. What a reminder to try harder each year.

It seems I start out well in January of each year and do a fair job through March…but as the garden picks up, my writing slows down. This year, I vow (like every year) I will do better.

This time of year, January, I enjoy a different kind of gardening. Gardening of the mind, I suppose. It’s a time to plan and reflect. I don’t know about you, but I need the rest, both mentally and physically. DH will often talk of moving south and will say something along the lines of “Just think, you’ll be able to garden all year!” It has dawned on me that I don’t want to garden (in that way) all year. I like seeing snow covering everything and realizing that the garden will manage without me. It’s another kind of pleasure to pull out the journal and favorite garden books (even some new ones). During the busy season of actual gardening, I seldom find time to indulge in feeding my gardening mind. I try, but I’m usually pleasantly weary from working outside or have a thousand ideas/thoughts/chores that take precedence. The physical garden calls me, even demands my attention.

For now, though, I can pleasantly dwell on the non physical aspects like putting together the online albums I desire (hundreds..no kidding…of pictures of Chelsea 06!), trying to make a dent in the stacks of garden books I collect, sorting seeds and even making a stab at organizing the piles of handouts, etc. that I bring home from lectures.

Speaking of snow, it looks like we might get some tonight! I’m ready….and I hope you’re ready to join me in making a better effort at that garden journaling.