Staying Organized
Spring is finally here! The seeds are up and thriving, all those bulbs planted last fall are showing up and giving a bit of color to an otherwise brown landscape, and the buds are swelling on the trees. Somehow the very air just smells different. Time to hit the ground running with all that we have spent the winter planning for our garden room.
Before you do though, take some time to make some notes about those bulbs that are sprouting up in your garden, make notes about places where it seems there should be something growing and where you’d really like to see something coming up in the spring- remember, bulbs can be layered with really early ones like snow drops making way for mid to late spring crocuses, and then the summer bulbs coming up through the tulips for some summer blooms. You know when those bulbs show up on the shelves at the garden store in the fall that you won’t be able to resist! You’ll have an idea what to get, and where to put it if you make some notes.
Do you have a place to keep all of those notes together? How about getting an old three ring binder and some pocket dividers, maybe some of those old magnetic photo album pages. The pictures you have torn out of magazines can be put into the magnetic album pages- they’re not much good for archiving photos, but great for clippings and ideas. Even scotch tape and looseleaf paper works to keep those ideas in order. Label those pocket dividers for the different seasons and stash those clippings in the pockets until you really decide which ideas you want to use- not every idea works for every garden, or they could be used to hold some seed packets or empty bulb packages and plant tags. I would use mine to hold directions for building structures for the garden.
If you’ve found a nice thick binder, you could also make yourself a Garden Journal very simply by adding in enough looseleaf paper to put all the days of the year at the top of it’s own page. Keep track of the year in the left margin, and write about what’s new in your garden, what’s blooming, what birds you’ve seen, what the weather is like- maybe just to make note of the extremes, whatever is important to you. It can be very interesting to see how different years compare. Divide those days up into seasons with those pocket dividers, and magnetic pages, maybe even add in some scrapbook pages for photos from your garden. The whole thing doesn’t have to be fancy to be useful, but you could make it really attractive and special enough to leave out on the coffee table if you wanted to.
I started a journal many years ago to keep track of when I started seeds, how long it took for them to sprout, when they started blooming or were ready to eat. Also included are what was blooming out in the garden in the spring and summer and when I did some of the garden chores, and when I planted new things in the garden. I found that after a few years, patterns emerged- some spring plants bloomed on the same day every year, indicating to me that they were timed with the sun, but others seemed to be more tied to weather and would wait for ideal conditions before performing. I also found that it wasn’t necessary to write every day, or even every week- just when I felt like it, or had something to jot down. I seldom get fancy either- just a list of what is blooming, or sprouting, weather temps or extremes, when I sight the first Robin of spring or if I see a different kind of bird migrating, or a new butterfly. By using the larger looseleaf paper and stacking one year’s entry over the previous year’s it can be interesting to see those patterns emerge. It’s also a great way to remember those exciting gardening moments too, the first home grown peach, that sighting of a Cerulean Warbler passing through, or even the biggest earthworm you’ve ever seen.
Spring is the start of a whole new gardening year, I’m for getting organized and putting some of those great ideas I’ve accumulated into one convenient place so I don’t waste valuable gardening time looking for all my notes and torn out pictures. Great rainy day project, don’t you think? I think I’ll go get started on a new Gardening Journal-
See you in the garden!
Ellen Leigh
