   Keep a Garden Journal - January 4, 2012 Jeff Schalau, Agent, Agriculture & Natural Resources University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Yavapai County Keeping a garden and landscape journal is a practical way to remember what you have done in your garden and when you did it. I’ve lived in my current house for about 12 years. After we built a fence to keep the dogs in and the wildlife out, I planted eleven fruit trees. My first entry in my garden journal was the varieties and locations of those fruit trees. Between gophers and peach tree borers, I only have seven of those original trees left, but I still know the varieties and ages of the ones that are left (and those that are gone). The next task in the yard was to construct a large terrace for a vegetable garden. I chose a sunny location and started by building a stone retaining wall ranging in height from a few inches to 2 feet on the downhill side. To that I added a fence and a couple of gates and I was ready to go. The first summer vegetable garden was planted in 2002. I forgot to add comments during the growing season for that first garden, but during subsequent years I wrote in the best tasting and performing varieties alongside the failures that invariably occurred with each season. You can learn as much from failures as you can from successes. I grew corn for a couple of years and it did well, but it took up lots of space as well as water and nitrogen. I also grew lots of green chiles for roasting. This was fun, but I quickly learned that corn was not the best crop for me due to space required and green chiles could be purchased each year from New Mexico and there was usually a roaster in front of the store that sold them. For the past few years, tomatoes, jalapeno and serrano chiles, eggplant, green beans, lettuce, beets, chard, summer squash, and cucumbers have topped the list of garden vegetables. I also planted some flowers each summer to brighten the garden and attract beneficial insects. All varieties and planting dates were recorded. I’ve stapled a few photos into my journal over the years too. While I’ve usually focused on summer gardens, for many years I have grown a winter cover crop of cereal rye and hairy vetch. The combination is seeded in October and chopped down and turned under in the spring about 3-4 weeks before planting. I have also grown a few rows of garlic twice since starting this garden. It was planted in mid-October and harvested the following June. It’s all documented in my garden journal. I also have a rain gauge, and for quite a while, I recorded daily precipitation information in my garden journal. I would total it for the year and compare it to the yearly average (often a disappointing exercise). Now, I use the on-line database, rainlog.org, to track my precipitation information and can also compare my data with that of others across the southwest U.S. Rainlog.org is a cooperative rainfall monitoring network for Arizona. Data collected through this network is used for a variety of applications, from watershed management activities to drought planning at local, county, and state levels. When you use rainlog.org, you are a “citizen scientist” sharing your data with researchers and land managers. I still record landmark and seasonal totals in my garden journal. Rainlog.org is easy to use and free - if you are not yet a rainlogger, you need to start! My journal is a 9 ¾” x 7 ½” composition notebook with lined paper. In hindsight, I would have preferred graph paper (called 4 x 4 quad) because I use sketches to map my plantings. I also recommend a high quality pen with waterproof ink. This book lives on the back porch, goes with me into the garden, and has gotten wet several times. It is not a pretty scrapbook, but for someone so inclined, it could be. I have also seen various garden journal apps for iPad, Droid, and programs designed for personal computers. While none of these currently fit my needs, they may fit yours. Get your New Year of gardening off to a ripping start and document your successes and failures in a garden journal. Just think, it will be a family heirloom someday! Follow the Backyard Gardener on Twitter – use the link on the BYG website. If you have other gardening questions, call the Master Gardener line in the Camp Verde office at 928-554-8999 Ext. 3 or e-mail us at cottonwoodmg@yahoo.com and be sure to include your name, address and phone number. Find past Backyard Gardener columns or provide feedback at the Backyard Gardener web site: http://cals.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/.  |