DIY Garden Journal

When I started my garden this year I knew I wanted to create a garden journal to go with it. One that was not only functional but beautiful too. I wanted a place to record data like planting dates and products used as well as pictures and other updates that I could look back on during the cold grey winter. 

All in all this is a pretty simple project, especially since your data portions can be filled in using my Garden Journal Printables. These are the supplies I used: 1-inch binder, cardstock paper, washi tape and Sharpies (not pictured: 3-hole punch).

The first pages I wanted in my journal were my Square-Foot Garden map, seed starting log and pest and disease log. Again, those can be printed here.

Then I took several sheets of my colorful cardstock (my set is from Michael’s and is the color “Spice Market”) and hole-punched them to serve as the scrapbook page portion of my journal.

Now that the papers are loaded in, you can see what the journal looks like in action.

My garden is only a week old, so there wasn’t a whole lot to document. But, I did get the first couple of pages filled in. I started with a picture of the bed immediately after planting so I could show the progression as the weeks go on.

Also, notice that I documented exactly how I filled my raised bed with soil. That will be good info if I decide I need to tweak the mixture next year!

I attached my photos with the washi tape. I will likely have to supplement with some glue, as washi tape is surprisingly un-sticky.

I went with square, Instagram-style photos because I like the look – but here’s a tip: Walgreen’s photo center online allows you to take your original photos and apply a square crop and order them that way. This is how I get mine printed because 1. I don’t want to spam my Instagram feed with all of my garden photos (only some of them!) and 2. I’ve gotten Instagram photos printed in the past and wasn’t crazy about the quality. I assume it’s from Instagram compressing the image that it doesn’t translate well to print.

I use Walgreen’s because I have one just down the road and the photos are usually available within the hour. I’m sure there are other websites where you can order square-crop too, but I like immediate gratification. Though it does pain me because Walgreen’s charges 10-cents more for 4×4 than a normal 4×6 photo. I’m paying more for less paper! You’ll probably see me mention this a lot if you follow me on social media because I am seriously bitter about it. Sorry in advance.

If you’re gardening, will you be keeping a Garden Journal this year?

Linking up with: Sugar Bee Crafts, Ginger Snap Crafts, Creative Geekery, Liz Marie Blog, Design Dining and Diapers, The 36th Avenue, Lil’ Luna