Thrifty Kiwi
Like our Facebook page
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Homesteading
  • Gardening
    • 2025 Garden
    • 2021 Garden Blog
    • 2019-2020 Garden Blog
    • 2017-2018 Garden Blog
    • 2016-2017 Garden Blog
    • Kiwi Urban Homestead 2013-2015 Garden Blog
    • Pest & Diseases
  • Recipes
    • Autoimmune Protocol
    • Meals and Snacks
    • Preserving
    • Household Cleaners
    • Health & Beauty
  • Skills
    • Menu Planning & Grocery Shopping
    • Money & Budgeting
    • Preserving How-Tos
    • Housekeeping
    • DIY
    • How to Find Stuff Free or Cheap
  • Animals
    • Critter Blog
  • About
  • Contact

My Garden Diary

28/9/2013

2 Comments

 
Picture
When I set the goal to grow 1000 kgs of food this year, I realised I would need somewhere to record my harvest weights as I went along, and so I decided to use a garden diary. But I quickly realised that a garden diary is an essential tool that helps me in so many ways!

I started off with a very lovely, purchased 2013 Garden Diary from NZ Gardening Magazine. I love to look at it for ideas and all the lovely photos, but there was nowhere enough room for me to record everything I wanted to. After gluing and taping in extra photos and notes, I realised it would be simpler to just create my own. So I grabbed a spare ring-binder, sat down at the computer, and put together what works for me. What's in my garden diary? Join me for a wee look inside my 2013 Garden Diary....

Picture
Right in the front of my dairy is a Moon Calendar planting guide. This one is simple to use, and was printed free from NZ Gardener magazine's website. They have since changed their site, and it's no longer on there, so you can now download it HERE.

I use this guide to tell me when is the best time of the month to plant above-ground crops, root crops, or just concentrate on other garden chores.

I use tab dividers in my binder - each with a month of the year on it - to make flipping from month to month easy.

Picture
In the front of each month's section are photos and notes from the 1st of the month showing me what was happening in my garden then. I started doing this for myself, and later began putting photos on this blog each month, so now I just write the blog post, print a copy, and put it in my diary.

These photos and notes are very helpful - it is encouraging to look back and see how the garden has grown month by month, and it's also a useful memory jogger down the track - for example if I want to remember in which month certain plants were at their peak, or started to have problems. Or to track the growth of biennial or perennial plants.

Picture
Next in each section is a monthly planting guide, which I get emailed to me free from www.gardengrow.co.nz. These lists are a great starting point to guide one in what to sow or plant for your region. As my experience increases, I learn more about the best plants and timing for MY garden, but this guide has been invaluable this year.

Picture
I use a two page per month spread like this to track daily weather conditions, monthly rainfall, and anything else I care to note. The green lines show me at a glance the days of the month best for planting above-ground crops, and the orange lines highlight the root crop planting days. I print these pages free from the internet - there are several sites with variations available. I got mine HERE

Picture
I use these diary pages to make some notes each day on things I've done, anything of note, something I learned, or just about anything else! Again, free pages are available from the internet. I got mine HERE.

Picture
In some sections of my diary there are also pages of notes on particular crops or experiments in my garden, such as the Green Bean Experiment, or my Sweet Corn crop.

Picture
Picture
I created some pages on my computer. The first is one to record what I sow or plant during the month. I find I refer back to these pages often, especially any time I wonder just how long ago I planted a particular crop.

Picture
And pages to record my harvest weights...

Picture
A "To Remember Next...." page is handy to jot down info that is relevant to that particular month of the year, so that next year I will hopefully see timely pointers.

Picture
I have additional pages for tracking egg production from my chickens, and information relating to my sheep. The great thing about a garden diary is you can personalise it to anything YOU need to help you on your own homestead.

Picture
A Notes & Ideas page is handy to jot down those great tit-bits that I pick up here and there along the way.

I hope you have enjoyed this wee tour of my Garden Diary! I do find it a very handy tool to keep track of and plan my garden. I also tend to add in other notes and pages printed from the internet, but have to limit myself as my binder can only hold so much! I already had to change it up from a regular size binder to a larger one!

The local knowledge you start to acquire as you do things like track your weather is an enormous help in the garden. For example, I have noticed over the last few years (due to lambing in spring) that we always have storms and gales in September, which is the month of the Equinox. Knowing this, I can plan accordingly, ensuring things are anchored down well, plants that need it are well staked, animals have shelter etc. A local friend told me recently that strong winds are also normal for the end of November. I hadn't particularly noted that before, but she is right to point out that things like corn and broad beans, which are normally very tall by then, are likely to be blown over if not well anchored or staked. Forewarned is forearmed! Keeping track in a garden diary helps you become familiar with your own typical weather patterns, and reduces how often you're caught by surprise.

Personally, I wouldn't be without my garden diary!

2 Comments
Carol Oates
7/1/2017 10:18:40 am

What a great idea. I do not have the time for that at the moment but when I retire next year I am going to do just that, keep a diary.

Reply
Carol Oates
7/1/2017 10:19:36 am

Great idea. Love it

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    This page is my blog formerly known as Kiwi Urban Homestead.

    I'm a Kiwi homeschooling mother of 5 living in a small town. After growing 1000 kg of produce in my back yard in 2013, I'm now expanding my edible gardens even further.

    Archives

    February 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    Categories

    All
    Bees
    Butchering
    Chickens
    Compost
    Corn
    Diy Projects
    Events
    Everything Else
    Firewood
    Freebies
    Frugal Fortnight
    Garden Diary
    Getting Started
    Greenhouse
    Harvest
    Harvest Totals
    Health
    Herbs
    Home Made Cleaners
    Homesteading Skills
    Jungle Taming
    Livestock
    Media
    Monthly Garden Pics
    Moon Planting
    Musings
    Pests And Diseases
    Planting
    Preserving The Harvest
    Recipes
    Salads
    Soil Improvement
    Specific Crops
    Tomatoes
    Weekly Round Up
    Worms
    Yates Vegie Challenge
    Zucchini

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.