I always was the kind of teacher that would plan my lesson on the way to class, or have scraps of post it notes stuck on the journal I'd inevitably leave at home. I'm not a good planner on paper. Any garden notes I'd make would be in various notebooks I'd lose or would be repurposed for sketching house plans, writing shopping lists and so on.
This year, I was tempted by PIP Magazine's purpose made garden journal. It wasn't cheap, but somehow moving into a whole new area made me want to record things so I'd have a clearer idea next year. PIP is Australia's permaculture monthly, which I usually get out from the library.
It's quite cute, as far as planners go - with vegetables in the lining and wipable front cover. I tend to write in it when I come in from the garden rather than in the garden itself. Often, over lunch - in this case a garden picked salad and fried tofu. Yum. I did try not to get sauce on the pages.
Excuse the odd orientation of these photos - I'm writing this at work (emergency teaching is great for Hiving) as I'm having trouble with uploads here. I can pre load them on my phone but they didn't load the way I wanted them to. I'm sure you'll get the idea though.
Throughout the journal there are little quotes to inspire, or in this case, make me laugh - I'm definitely good natured until the bloody chooks escape and rip up my seedlings. Bastard feathered things. There's a preface for each season where you can make notes for what's ahead, although I find organising my garden via seasons tricky as they're a little blurry these days.
However for each month there's a space to plan what you'll hope to achieve, as well as a temperature and rainfall table to make notes. I keep forgetting to do this but I think it's a good thing to do to easily refer back to for next year. Dammit, I just realised that Hive should have a garden planner app. Why didn't I think of this before? Probably too late now, with the price the way it is.
There's also a chart for when to plant and sow, which is great. I was going to laminate one for the garden but now it's all in one neat book so I don't really have to.
Of course, it's also week to week, and there's also a few recipes and the moon phase noted. I can't say the recipes are particularly useful to me, but they might be to those who enjoy growing their own food. In some ways I'd like to create my own gardening journal on Canva for Amazon but it's probably a waste of my time as there's so much AI content it'd be hard to get noticed anyway. I can never be bothered with the marketing.
I have to say, I quite love my little book. I've only been using it since early January though so it remains to be seen whether I'll use it consistantly though. It is good to make little observations and notes, but I'm the kind of person who just holds all that in my head anyway with all the other things my overworked brain keeps and uses.
I do hope I remember not to plant so many beans next year though. Jamie just doesn't eat them.
A few notes from this year, if I only have the blockchain to refer to:
- create better shade for the northerly aspect as many things get crozzled in the heat.
- Planting tomatoes early was a good idea.
- self pollinating zucc was a pain. plant heaps of flowers for bees ready for next season.
- plant more chilli in more fertile soil.
Do you plan your garden in a formal way or hold it all
With Love,
 | Hi, my name is  and I help facilitate the Hive Gardeners group here on the Hive blockchain. You can find us here. I live in a warm temperate climate near the coast in Australia. I really love growing our own food and medicinal herbs, native plants, and creating good soil for resilient plants. |
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