Hello,
Do you struggle with keeping garden records? Maybe you simply haven’t found a method (or 2 or 3) that’s a good fit for your garden life. Before you resolve to track every bloom and berry, decide what kind of information is important to retain and choose a method that works for you.
Keeping garden records can be a simple as a notepad and snapping photos with your smart phone which, by the way, records the date and location of each photo embedded in the digital file. Regular snapshots make it easy to capture the current growing season and moving forward, you’ll have a visual reference of previous years.
I think of this next approach, my favorite, as the stash-and-dash method of garden record keeping. Get in the habit of hanging onto empty seed packets and plant tags, collectively they offer a sketch of the current planting season. A permanent list of seasonal chores, like stocking up on compost in spring and weatherproofing the irrigation system in fall, reminds you to attend to the more routine side of tending — just remember where you put the list!
During quieter months, I lean hard into dreaming and scheming. What would be better, a greenhouse or a modest cold frame? Should I convert my vegetable garden into raised beds for flowers? I’m “doing” flowers for a very special wedding in September! My first sowing of pansies failed but I’m not willing to give up my dream of long-stemmed beauties for the vase. So I’ll replant. Even if our plans never make it off the page, stretch goals can tell us a lot about our relationship with the garden. But I really, really want those long stemmed pansies.
Once you narrow down what you want to track and how, garden record keeping doesn’t seem so overwhelming. And as the years roll by a garden story emerges that’s unique to you and your plot. Check out a video preview of my Garden Journaling class on Creativebug. I’m so glad you’re here.
xo Lorene
New Creativebug Class
It’s been said that “Gardening is the slowest of the performing arts,” but things move along pretty swiftly once the growing season is underway. My new Garden Journaling class on Creativebug launches March 20, 2024 – and I’m so excited to share it with you. We’ll cover collaging a garden dream board, diagraming the garden using a simple bubble drawing, and what to include in your garden log sheet. A well-used garden journal is a valuable reference when plotting for the future, but you need not limit yourself to the realities of your growing region or resources; simply choose any plant that appeals to you and have some fun! This class launches, appropriately on the first day of spring! Welcome to another year in the garden.
As a Creativebug instructor I receive a small commission when you use my links — feel free to share with others!
Recent reading on Substack: On rules in art: “These are rules other people assigned to art, and we must take care not to them on as our own.” Deb Champion
On keeping up with Substack: “So many elegant, raw, witty, soulful, learning to be brave voices and never enough time. Can’t possibly know just how it is for you but for me it can be intimidating.” David Perry
On chocolate cake: “If you make any chocolate cake in the coming weeks/months/years, please make it this one.” Elissa Altman
Recent writing: Gardens are a Sensory Indulgence on Garden Rant. A garden plays to the human condition, offering a sensory indulgence that sparks curiosity, engages memory, and tickles connection.
Coloring
February 28, 2024
A party dress (Hellebore) acquired from the lovely Debra Prinzing, friend of my heart for a lifetime. Happy birthday dear one 🤍
February 29, 2024
Gardeners get good at starting over, it’s just not always easy.
The creeping rosemary on the back stoop was fine, until it wasn’t. I probably should have replaced it last spring after a punishing winter — but I didn’t, hoping the plant would recover quickly. And it did, sort of. I can still harvest plenty of sprigs for the kitchen but the plant itself looks like one of those ancient twisted junipers in a harsh climate. Not really the vibe I’m after, but the wood is a delicious peachy color.
This winter’s deep freeze took out my rosemary topiary and I’m still kicking myself for not bringing the plant indoors for that short week. It would have been so easy to save 2 years of careful clipping and training. She was just getting good, tall and skinny ala Abbie Zabar — my inspiration in all things topiary.
Begin again.
March 1, 2024
This delicate maidenhair fern (Adiantum venustum) is hardy in my zone 8 garden - in fact even if you live where temperatures drop as low as -20 (F) this little lovely will persist in your garden and even hold it’s slightly battered evergreen foliage through the winter. This isn’t quite so surprising when I think about the fact that “Himalayan” is part of this fern’s common name.
Every day, except for the one’s that are soaked by unrelenting and drenching rains, I walk about the garden to see what’s coming along. I am not disappointed. This time of the year it’s lovely to savor each new appearance, whether that’s a tiny bulb or buds on the flowering shrubs - I see you forsythia, how could I miss your school bus yellow. New growth on ‘Magic Carpet’ Spirea is emerging in shades of rusty bronze, orange, and lemon yellow, it’s not for everyone, especially in a few months when the bubblegum pink flowers arrive.
My heart is full of plans but my head insists that I return to my desk if I have any hope of sticking the landing on my book manuscript due one month from today. Once again, I’m a gardener/writer held to my desk writing about gardeners and gardens. Don’t tell me the Universe doesn’t have a sense of humor.
March 2, 2024
A little bit of contained wildness on the little deck —>
Hyacinths are a bit showy and regimented at first but relax into their selves and diminish (in a good way) over time and with the circularity of the seasons. Sounds like aging to me
March 3, 2024
On this 3rd of March — 03/03 — my precious son is 33. Look for small wonders in everyday life. Happy Birthday Sonno!!! … and sweet violets💜
March 4, 2024
‘Eva Gold’ heather blooms her very pink, fool heart out all winter long. Her — because surely Eva is a she, golden tipped foliage is like a shaft of sunlight in the grey garden.
Pink and gold isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I like a stubborn woman with a quirky color sense. Sound familiar?
March 5, 2024
Beautiful blue skies
But I’m under the weather…ugh
It’s been so long, I think I’ve forgotten how to have a cold. I just cut up a giant grapefruit, a ruby pomelo and a questionable orange. I’ll start there.
BROWN: an essay
Chalky bluffs, flaxen dust, and pale sand luminously reflect light, but are in fact barren and vacant. These stylishly acceptable shades may suit a tasteful interior, but their shallow and sterile nature is too thin to support vitality out in the natural world.
Growth relies on substance and depth. If you want to feed the world, furnish the hills, and flourish, choose complexity and vigor over wan good looks and a lean figure. Gritty soil, sticky muck, and mineral oxides yield expectantly fertile sweet loam and chocolate soil.
About town and deep in the country, grounding every city, field, and forest. The foundation of all living things: gardeners appreciate dirt brown.
—From Color In and Out of the Garden
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