top of page

The Secret to a Better Garden

Writer's picture: Julia WatsonJulia Watson

Rose "Joseph's Coat" cascading over our gate
Rose "Joseph's Coat" cascading over our gate

If I titled this post “Keep Records” you wouldn’t read it and I wouldn’t blame you! But the more you keep records and take photos, the better your garden will be. You’ll know which varieties cranked out big armloads of gorgeous flowers and which ones were wimpy and worthless. You won’t repeat mistakes - you’ll look at your notes and say, “No, that didn’t work last year so let’s not do it again.” Keeping records is not much fun, and I often resist doing it, but I’m happy when I have notes to check. You’ll be happier with your garden if you do it too. Here are methods that work for me.

 

Written notebooks or journals

For about twenty years, I used Month-at-a-Glance notebooks for my garden notes – that was before we started Tiny Footprint Flowers. Sometimes those notes were pretty sparse because I was too busy at my full-time job. But I still managed to note when I planted things and when things bloomed. Those notes were useful, and they proved to me that any notes are better than none.

 


I have notes and photos to answer my future questions. Clockwise from upper left: Just how tall was that Pink Promise rose? When did the cherry tree bloom? Was our Fourth of July rose in bloom on the Fourth of July? How long did those blooms last in the vase?


Excel

When we started Tiny Footprint Flowers, I made Excel spreadsheets, and we still consult those. I’m a big fan of spreadsheets and databases, so I don’t have to be sold on the value of Excel. If anything, I like spreadsheets too much. I try to stop myself from using any Excel feature that’s flashy but doesn’t add value, but of course that’s a very subjective thing. I love color coding and my Excel docs are never only black and white, but I contend that my colors are helpful to me. Find what works for you.

 

iCal

Over the past two years, both Don and I have started relying on iCal more to keep track of crops and work. He’s not as crazy as I am about records, so he can simply make a note in our iCal shared calendar, and I can add notes to my main Excel table for all of Tiny Footprint.

 

Airtable

In 2024 I added something new – keeping records in Airtable. I write a quick summary at the end of each week so I know the important milestones, and I have photos and notes for all our flowers in a format that can be rearranged easily. Airtable is a relational database and it’s much more powerful than Excel; data can be rearranged into other tables, or into calendars or timelines. But be careful – Airtable is a powerful hammer and once you learn how to use it, everything starts looking like a nail.

 


From my Airtable records - I make a record for each of our flower varieties, then add notes and photos or video clips.
From my Airtable records - I make a record for each of our flower varieties, then add notes and photos or video clips.

Cell phone photos

I wrote another post about this here – urging gardeners to take photos along with their notes. Sometimes photos are more useful than notes. You can see how tall a certain variety grew by the end of July, or how deep the shade was on a winter afternoon. You will never have the exact photo you want later but take some now anyway.

 

Rose varieties from my photo records, clockwise from upper left:  Elina; Rina Hugo; Snowfire, Sally Holmes
Rose varieties from my photo records, clockwise from upper left: Elina; Rina Hugo; Snowfire, Sally Holmes

Organizing Photos

I still don’t have the ideal method for organizing photos; in fact, that’s one of my goals for this year. I use folders in Photos (Apple photo software) on my desktop (an iMac) but I still can’t always find the photo I want quickly. I take a lot of photos for Tiny Footprint Flowers, and lots more for my work as an artist, so I need to be organized. Here again there’s a tradeoff between the time spent learning a new system and the time I might save with better organization. I’ll have to get back to you on what works best.

 

Blogging

Here’s one more little secret – this blog is another way I keep records. I wish I had more time to post, but even my slow rate of writing is useful. Don and I often go back to these posts because we know it’s a quick way to see a certain photo that we remember.


Unknown sunflower blooming in my back yard. If only I had a note about which variety this is!
Unknown sunflower blooming in my back yard. If only I had a note about which variety this is!

1 view0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


© 2023 by Brian Hill. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page