The Garden Journal

Jun 3, 2018 | Door County, Gardening, Homesteading, Potager | 12 comments

I have a dear new friend. It’s my garden journal. Have you ever wondered why you should keep a garden journal or even HOW too keep a garden journal?

For years I have been wanting to keep one and I am not quite sure why this particular garden discipline has been so difficult to implement.

I don’t know, maybe it’s the six babies I’ve had in the last thirteen years or something like that?

Seriously.

But my littlest sweet baby turns two in a few weeks and somehow I have found the time to begin this important process of the committed gardener. The garden journal. I’ve been enjoying it early in the morning outside with a hot cup of coffee and my Bible or late at night after a big day in the garden when it’s just me, the singing birds and the susurrus of the trees overhead.

Why keep a garden journal?

Since beginning my journal a few weeks ago I am finding it as important to my garden as the skill of seed starting, dividing perennials or layering one’s garden, for in it I am able to take all the hopes and dreams for my garden and put them down on paper. Instead of ideas swirling around in my brain they become a plan. Instead of being a hope or a thought that will fade with the chaos of my life, they will become a plan for the future. Romantic notions and fond memories of my time in the dirt and among the petals now have a place. I’m noting germination times, flowering dates, sun patterns… this is a new world for me here in northern Wisconsin and I want to KNOW my new environment intimately.

How to keep a garden journal, why you should keep a garden journal, how to keep a garden journal

We’ve finished phase one of this new potager which includes a free-standing stone wall with garden gate entrance, a stone wall against the small hill the house is built upon, a large wattle inspired fence to keep out the deer, arches placed just so, here and there on the numerous paths and over twenty different beds.    This year those beds are to be very simple. I have been gathering wild perennials from around the property. Lupine growing like mad in spots and leftover lavender from an old perennial garden that is overgrown with close to a decade of neglect. (This home stood empty for many years.)

The budget is very small and completely exhausted for this first year of the garden and so necessity, being the mother of invention, demands that I fill in large empty spaces with thousands of zinnia seeds, lettuce and an abundance of herbs. At present, it looks like a mass amount of dirt but we are for sure in the “faith” stage of the garden.   Surely every gardener knows this phase. You’ve planned, tilled, toiled and planted and suddenly the earth seems frozen in time as though nothing will ever come of it and all germination rates become one out of one hundred.

Yes, the seeds and tiny plants have been installed and I am holding my breath waiting for it to burst forth. Every year it seems like the same thing, it feels as though it will never happen…tick tock, tick tock. But if all goes as planned, it will be a riot of colour and produce before I know it. Though in it’s current state that seems highly unlikely. It’s the faith stage of the garden for sure.

How to keep a garden journal?

It’s tres façile. In my journal, I can note the romantic notions that my garden inspires and keep more practical information too. I am keeping a list of every perennial when it was put in and from where I acquired it. I love this concept of noting where I gathered a particular plant. Gardening is such a communal hobby or dare I say, lifestyle. It’s so wonderful to share plants with friends, family and strangers.    Surprisingly, the list fills one page already. Free hosta found on  Facebook, fifty raspberry plants from a farmer down in Sturgeon Bay, lupine and lily of the valley growing wild and teeny tiny delphinium that I started in my greenhouse this winter…

Fond stories are recorded here too.

How to keep a garden journal, why you should keep a garden journal, how to keep a garden journal

A few weeks ago we were visiting our favourite coffee shop – Leroy’s. He had minuscule Ladies Mantle that had naturalized and spread into his lawn in front of the shop. Ladies mantle, Alchemilla Mollis, is my favourite perennial. It’s so beautiful I can barely take it. When the rain forms its mercury drops on the leaves…there are no words. I digress. I couldn’t help but ask Leroy if I could come by later with a shovel and save those lovely little ladies from what would surely be sudden death with the first time he mowed the grass. And so now, my potager boasts twenty-five of this favourite perennial. We affectionately call it “Leroy’s Mantle”. The details of this silly memory are, of course, noted in my garden journal.

Two of my favourite artists also happened to be incredible gardeners. Precious Tasha Tudor and Beatrix Potter. Their gardens and sketches and watercolours inspire me beyond measure. My garden journal will give me an excuse and opportunity to use my much, much, much neglected sketching talent.   (And I use the word “talent” incredibly loosely) but nonetheless, the paper is there and now I have a reason. My garden journal.

How to keep a garden journal, why you should keep a garden journal, how to keep a garden journal

A family heirloom?

Someday I’ll be a fussy old lady, trimming her roses, apron pockets full of seeds (wait, that’s me already)… gray-haired (with red lips!) dividing years and years of perennials to share with my own children and someday, I’ll be with Jesus and I hope my children would enjoy having years of gardening journals kept by their mother. I’m tremendously sentimental so perhaps that is simply something I would enjoy. I’ll risk it and continue to note, sketch and dream.

How to keep a garden journal, why you should keep a garden journal, how to keep a garden journal

How a garden journal can be practical. Why you should keep a garden journal.

It’s not just for the romantic or sentimental gardener. The garden journal can be very practical. There is something to be said for journaling the following:

  • The first and last frost date of the year
  • When your plants begin to bloom (this is vital if you are creating a layered garden that holds it’s colour from the last frost to beyond the first!)
  • What pest control you’ve tried and how well it worked (this year I will be working with a variety of my essential oils in my continued commitment to organic gardening)
  • How many hours it took you to achieve your look on a particular year (and any extenuating life circumstance)
  • When you plant a particular perennial and what size it was
  • Good (or bad) brick and mortar or online nursery experiences

How to keep a garden journal, why you should keep a garden journal, how to keep a garden journal

It’s only been a few weeks since I’ve committed to the process of journaling my garden and I hope I’ve inspired you on the idea of “why to keep a garden journal”, but I personally, am mourning a bit the twenty-two years of lost gardening notations. Really, I am. But perhaps my new garden journal is for such a time as this. Our dream home here in Door County. The space we are working with is beautiful and yet overwhelming as my creative mind swells to the point of overflow. And thus, the garden journal. What a better place to record this entire process?

Happy gardening dear friend, I’m glad you’re here with me as I create this space over the coming years. I hope you will journal your way as well.

 

Thank you for Reading! À bientôt! Angela

P.S. Need another gardening fix? Here’s an old favourite.

12 Comments

  1. Nita Hiltner

    How do you keep the wattle together? I am sad because the soil here is like sand and with the gophers, I am forced to plant in pots, hence, my POT A GER! I see your rich soil and want to cry of jealously. We are to be heavily restricted here in Calif. to any water usage, so my front lawn is turning back to sand. I love your photos and please show us more.

    Reply
  2. Linda a.

    Yes, please show us more so we can catch
    your garden vision with you.
    Also, pictures of your work in your kitchen and elsewhere.
    Your garden will soon be amazing!

    Reply
  3. Ginene Nagel

    I am enjoying your new adventures and often wonder how you find time to be so creative with six children to care for. You do a fabulous job! The fence is lovely. I’ve always wanted one of those after seeing some examples at Old World Wisconsin. You might want to call your new home Door County or the Door Penninsula which is zone 5A and not Northern Wisconsin which is zones 3B and 4A. Having lived in Eagle River for 20 years, I know that the gardening experience is completely different from Door County-Eastern Wisconsin. In the North Woods, I never had a tomato ripen naturally in all the years I gardened!

    Reply
  4. Cate Tuten

    Angela, loved loved this post and am saving it!! You are such a dear and kindred spirit……..Hoping your gardening season is long and happy in your far north dream spot………Blessings, Cate

    Reply
  5. Christi {Jealous Hands}

    My grandmothers both kept garden journals, and they are, indeed, family heirlooms now. How I enjoy looking through them all these years later! I keep one myself, and it’s so helpful and full of memories.

    Reply
  6. Lauren

    WOW!! All the hard work sure is paying off it’s going to be amazing!! You mentioned the lupines. I just read that they are poisonous to goats. Like cause freaky birth defects?!? I’m new to goats and just learning but wanted to make sure you knew

    Reply
  7. Debbie

    Love what you are doing. I know it’s going to be beautiful as everything fills in and matures. You mentioned Tasha Tudor and Beatrix Potter as being your favourite artists and as well as being great gardeners. I was wondering if you know of Jeri Landers? i recently found her on Youtube. She is an artist and illustrator, She also is a great gardener. She shows her many gardens at Hopalong Hollow on her Youtube channel. I think you would enjoy seeing what she has done to create beauty all around her property. Her style reminds me of yours.

    Reply
  8. Rita Thompson

    You’ve inspired me to start a journal,I’m in Lancashire uk ,I’m a grandma of 4 soon to be 5. I hope my children will enjoy my attempts to create a garden,& laugh at my failures,thank you,Rita

    Reply
  9. Sherri

    Ohhhhh! Your garden inspires me so much. It is perfection. I just found and subscribed to your site a few days ago and I love it! God bless you and your precious family.

    Reply
  10. Perfect Plants

    Love this idea! I have never done one before and think it will help me keep all my tasks in line (especially when they start adding up in early spring!) THanks for the idea!!

    Reply
  11. Dewena

    And now here it is a year later and I bet your garden journal is such a reward to you after a year of keeping it, both practically and emotionally. And it will be something your children fight over someday–uh oh, better make copies of it for them someday. I kept a small garden journal of the dooryard garden I had for 25 years at our old house and left it there for my daughter-in-law as she and our son bought our farm. And I was beyond happy when I saw one day that she talked about it on IG. And it thrills me every time we visit and I see how much love she continues to pour into our garden and farmhouse there.

    Surely you and Joel have thought about some day, a long long time from now, hoping one of your children will want to keep your beautiful place in the family? I hope so!

    Reply
  12. Anne-Marie Cartier

    Thank you Angela…What a lovely read and the wattle fence is truly amazing! I love your determination and your spunk! Don’t stop! xo

    Reply

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