Making a Garden Journal

Start a vegetable garden journal now so you can begin planning for next year. Use a notebook of any sort and notate things you think would be helpful in future planning.

These are the things I'm including in mine:

• Dollars spent on seeds, fertilizer, soil and such.
• Names of the seeds planted, date planted, and dates of first harvest.
• Cost of vegetable plants to track savings from starting from seed. At $3.50 per plant versus $1 per seed packet, I saved $96.This will motivate me to start seeds on time.
• Names and types of fertilizers along with how often applied.
• Number of each vegetable planted.
• Map of garden so I'll remember what was planted where.
• General notations about diseases, problems, what worked and what didn't.
• Log the weight of the produce as it comes in to track real grocery store savings.

Happy gardening!

By Tracey Ihle from Jacksonville, FL