I've grabbed the letterbox from the Orchard and put it up at the Steps, next to the compost bins. I figure that it's a bit more private/safe from tampering there.
Today I finally put the second notebook in it - this one is a garden diary for both the Orchard and the Steps.
Thanks for this Joanna. I've kept garden notebooks at different times in my life and have found them very useful. I need a reminder nowadays. Tend to do a bit of weeding then wander off without recording anything. My new season resolution is to get into the notebook habit!
At the last potluck discussion meeting we talked about keeping a gardening notebook, maybe on Ooooby.
A garden notebook is something I use for my own garden and find really helpful. It's for noting what you do and observe in the garden.
It is:
1. a great learning tool
2. a way to create a garden calendar specific to our site
Everyone does it differently, but I just make dated notes as I notice things. These are the things I've found useful to note down:
- what, where, how much you plant
- when you first start picking something, when picking finishes and whether you had too much or too little
- notable weather, especially if there's a frost, but also storms, droughts etc.
- things you notice and ideas you have about what to do next time (eg "Notice lots of birds in late Nov - next year put netting on strawberries by early Nov")
At the end of the season we can look back and see what worked, what didn't etc and maybe extract the stuff we want to remember and write it up neatly.
After the meeting I started thinking that an old-fashioned paper notebook might actually work better than something net-based:
1. it can be right there in the garden and even people not on Ooooby can use it
2. we can easily bring it to the planning meetings when we want to look back on what we did
So I've put an old notebook and a pen with some instructions in the fridge in the Secret Garden. I've got another notebook that we can use in the Orchard/new site if we want.
I figure that the way we use a gardening diary will evolve gradually anyway as we find the way that works best, so we might as well give this a go and see how we like it.
Replies
Today I finally put the second notebook in it - this one is a garden diary for both the Orchard and the Steps.
A garden notebook is something I use for my own garden and find really helpful. It's for noting what you do and observe in the garden.
It is:
1. a great learning tool
2. a way to create a garden calendar specific to our site
Everyone does it differently, but I just make dated notes as I notice things. These are the things I've found useful to note down:
- what, where, how much you plant
- when you first start picking something, when picking finishes and whether you had too much or too little
- notable weather, especially if there's a frost, but also storms, droughts etc.
- things you notice and ideas you have about what to do next time (eg "Notice lots of birds in late Nov - next year put netting on strawberries by early Nov")
At the end of the season we can look back and see what worked, what didn't etc and maybe extract the stuff we want to remember and write it up neatly.
After the meeting I started thinking that an old-fashioned paper notebook might actually work better than something net-based:
1. it can be right there in the garden and even people not on Ooooby can use it
2. we can easily bring it to the planning meetings when we want to look back on what we did
So I've put an old notebook and a pen with some instructions in the fridge in the Secret Garden. I've got another notebook that we can use in the Orchard/new site if we want.
I figure that the way we use a gardening diary will evolve gradually anyway as we find the way that works best, so we might as well give this a go and see how we like it.