The garden journal is one of the least used tools of gardening. Those who keep a garden journal, often do so because they simply love journaling. Those who don’t journal often find the idea daunting or a frivolous waste of time. But under the surface of this seemingly extra-curricular activity exists a giant underground cavern of insightful gems waiting to be discovered.
Sometimes, these insights are helpful in a physical way. Like other historical records, it’s a place where we can look back to examine the why’s of the present moment. Why am I having a challenge with this one area of my garden? What’s wrong with my plants? Is it the soil?
If you’re not journaling about your garden and keeping a history, then your garden experience will likely be filled with moments where you can’t remember events that happened. Without that history, it makes learning what to do and what not to do much more difficult and time consuming than it would have had you just taken a few minutes to make a few notes.
Other times, the changes a garden journal can bring are so profound it changes your entire journey and launches you the equivalent distance from here to the moon.
I remember waking up one day during my second year of my market garden. I was getting success, but not quite like I wanted. And while I was feeling successful, I was getting burnt out. As the season continued, that exhaustion got worse. I had trouble reaching goals and staying on track. Then abundance season hit and with it, all the pests and disease. I woke up one morning and realized I was so exhausted and I was no longer happy. I felt like I was trying to force nature to cooperate. So I walked. I left the food in the garden and just walked away.
I didn’t return to gardening for an entire year. But when I did, I realized that so many of my days were filled with entries of frustration that how I felt was exactly what was happening: I was trying to force nature to cooperate and fit in my box. That’s when everything changed.
I began to ask questions about how I could partner with nature so that I was letting her do as much of the work for me as possible. I realized that the language I was using for my entries was all about how ‘I was growing a garden.’ So I changed my perspective and started writing, ‘Nature is growing this garden, the soil is growing my plants.’ And then, it did. Nature grew my plants. And because I wasn’t trying to grow plants, I could focus on growing the soil and being a steward of the land.
Were it not for my garden entries, I would not have had anything to reflect on to make the connection of how my approach to gardening was creating the very frustration I was working so hard to avoid. Writing down my new mindset to partner with nature and filter my garden choices through that lens helped me set goals properly.
Gardening became more effortless than ever. Staying on track with my goals became so much easier. Had I not seen those entries of frustration later after I had long ago walked away from my garden, I may not have seen the pattern I was creating. When you journal, positive change is possible that can catapult your journey forward.
And garden journaling isn’t just a place for you to look back on to gain knowledge and wisdom. It’s a place where others can too. Whether you are verbally sharing lessons you’ve gained from your journaling with other growers in your community or you gift the journals to your grandchildren to pass on your garden insights, mindsets, and recipes, the record of your garden journey is absolutely priceless.
My grandmother didn’t garden, but she did make the most amazing delicious chicken noodle soup! The number of moments in my life that I have wished for that recipe and a photo of her and I enjoying that most amazing meal together are many. But there’s no recipe. There are no photos. And so there is a gap where her smile and her creation should be. By keeping a journal of your garden, your harvests and recipes, you are recording the creation of your life that someday may become one of the most precious things to your children and grandchildren.
When you choose to garden journal, so many gems can be found that may otherwise have remained hidden and lost to time. Keeping a garden journal is a way to light your path and the path of those who will follow in our footsteps.
