My Plant Journal
Since October 2008, I have been keeping a plant journal. I have a thing for journals and little blank books, so I had a bookshelf full of them. My intention was to fill them with my important thoughts over the years, be it a novel, lousy sketches or a journal. I was thinking that I really needed to start keeping track of important events concerning my plants and decided that one of my little blank books was perfect for the job.
My current plant journal is a small earth-tones journal made by Paperblanks from their "embellished manuscript" collection. I chose the Vincent van Gough journal because of the small garden scene drawn on the front. They also make a couple of Mozart and Beethoven journals with music on the front, as well as Rembrandt sketches and even Shakespeare's writing. On my journal, the wrap over piece magnetically attaches to the front. The journal measures 7"x9" and has 144 lined pages. The pages have just the right number of lines to be spaced correctly for my handwriting. Paperblanks makes a bunch of really cool looking journals, including some with Asian art on the covers, while others are simple leather-bound books. I purchased mine in the gift shop of Nathaniel Hawthorne's house in New England. But I have also seen them sold at several local book stores. :)
I have been using my journal to keep track of when I purchase new plants, where I got them and how much they cost me. Then I track when they bloom, when I notice anything weird about my plants, when I bring them in, put them out, prune them, etc. It has been a fun experience and I think it will prove valuable as I continue forward and wonder when certain things happened. It is also a nice compliment to my blog. I will write in my journal as things occur and then blog about them on a more regular (twice a week) schedule. So, even though I took a trip to a wonderful greenhouse a couple of weeks ago, it's not going to be on my blog for a couple more weeks. In the meantime, my journal (and my camera) will hold all of the important information that I need to remember for my blog post.
My Gardening Sketchbook
One day I wanted to sketch up a little idea for a terrarium that I wanted to plant. But I wanted to be kind of messy and my plant journal was much too neat for this activity. So I grabbed another journal - one of those lab books with the black and white marbled covers and gridded pages for drawing plots easily. This journal has become my sketchbook for when I want to be messy and make plans.
I have drawn up some plans for different terrarium and paludarium plantings, some sketches of my greenhouse plans and also made some lists of plants I would like to order.
These two journals are very separate things in my mind. In my plant journal I use pencil and write pretty neatly. In my sketchbook, I use a pen and scratch things out. It's much more messy. It's kind of like my two journals are for the two halves of my brain.
Do you keep a plant journal?
Since October 2008, I have been keeping a plant journal. I have a thing for journals and little blank books, so I had a bookshelf full of them. My intention was to fill them with my important thoughts over the years, be it a novel, lousy sketches or a journal. I was thinking that I really needed to start keeping track of important events concerning my plants and decided that one of my little blank books was perfect for the job.
My current plant journal is a small earth-tones journal made by Paperblanks from their "embellished manuscript" collection. I chose the Vincent van Gough journal because of the small garden scene drawn on the front. They also make a couple of Mozart and Beethoven journals with music on the front, as well as Rembrandt sketches and even Shakespeare's writing. On my journal, the wrap over piece magnetically attaches to the front. The journal measures 7"x9" and has 144 lined pages. The pages have just the right number of lines to be spaced correctly for my handwriting. Paperblanks makes a bunch of really cool looking journals, including some with Asian art on the covers, while others are simple leather-bound books. I purchased mine in the gift shop of Nathaniel Hawthorne's house in New England. But I have also seen them sold at several local book stores. :)
I have been using my journal to keep track of when I purchase new plants, where I got them and how much they cost me. Then I track when they bloom, when I notice anything weird about my plants, when I bring them in, put them out, prune them, etc. It has been a fun experience and I think it will prove valuable as I continue forward and wonder when certain things happened. It is also a nice compliment to my blog. I will write in my journal as things occur and then blog about them on a more regular (twice a week) schedule. So, even though I took a trip to a wonderful greenhouse a couple of weeks ago, it's not going to be on my blog for a couple more weeks. In the meantime, my journal (and my camera) will hold all of the important information that I need to remember for my blog post.
My Gardening Sketchbook
One day I wanted to sketch up a little idea for a terrarium that I wanted to plant. But I wanted to be kind of messy and my plant journal was much too neat for this activity. So I grabbed another journal - one of those lab books with the black and white marbled covers and gridded pages for drawing plots easily. This journal has become my sketchbook for when I want to be messy and make plans.
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| Sketch of my plans for a 10 gallon Anubias paludarium |
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| Initial planning sketch for my greenhouse |
Do you keep a plant journal?
