By Jackie Sledge
Big Country Master Gardener Association
Every year I promise myself I will get organized and keep records of my landscape, and unfortunately I seem to have that as one of my New Year’s Resolutions that I carry over from year to year. Why doesn’t it get done?
In the spring I get so busy cleaning up flower beds, garden areas, and turf that I put documenting my landscape on my “to do” list and move it over from day to day and week to week. In the summer it gets so hot that I don’t want to spend any of the valuable cooler time working on a garden journal when I need to water to keep the plants alive and pull weeds that seem to thrive in the heat. In the fall and winter I add plants and remove any that didn’t survive the summer, so I convince myself that the smart thing to do is to wait until I finish with fall landscape additions to complete the journal. That would be efficient, and then I could start the new year with an accurate garden journal!
During the fall months last year, I added new flower beds in the back yard and planted shrubs and perennials to serve as anchors in the beds. Unfortunately, I did not get mulch added to the beds to help discourage weeds so I had to spend quite a bit of time digging weeds. Then I could add more plants and top the soil with mulch to help hold moisture and hopefully deter weeds from coming back.
Well, I didn’t get around to recording information in the landscape journal for several months, so… Could I remember the names of all trees, shrubs, and plants in my landscape? Did I know the names and varieties of the perennials? What soil amendments did I make and when did I do that? Where did I put the drawing I had made of the raised beds and walkways I want to add? Panic set in when I couldn’t locate all the tags and plant stakes I had so carefully placed beside the plants in the new beds, and I set the journal aside to think about it.
Now that we are back to having day after day of hot temperatures, I had to decide how to use those hours most effectively when it has been too hot to work outside. Do I take a nap, work on the inside unfinished projects, or complete the landscape journal? As wonderful as the nap sounded, I decided to work on the landscape journal so I will know what I have and determine what I want to do to complete the partially filled beds.
This is beneficial information to document in a landscape journal:
- Plant name. Be sure to record the plant name plus the botanic name if you know it.
- Type of plant. Is it a flower, vegetable, fruit, herb, shrub, tree, annual, perennial, or bulb?
- Date planted. Show if you planted seeds or seedlings, planted bulbs, or transplanted plants from pots. Be sure to record the pot size of transplanted plants.
- Location of plant. Be sure to mark the location with a plant stake or flag as well as adding the location of each plant to the drawing of your landscape.
- Exposure. Is the plant in full sun, partial sun, or shade?
- Bloom date. Record the color of the bloom. It is also helpful to record the first bloom date and the last bloom date. This will probably change every year, but seeing the varying bloom times will help with planning for year-round color in the landscape.
- Harvest date. Record the date vegetables or herbs were harvested.
- Pruning. When did you prune the plant and how did you prune it?
- Pests. List the names of pests, when you found them, where they were on the plants, and how they were treated/remediated.
- Weeds. Show the names of weeds, when they appeared, and how they were treated or removed.
- Fertilizer or soil amendment. Show the date and type of fertilizer or soil amendment used in the area of the plants.
- Watering and rainfall. Record when you watered as well as the dates and amounts of rain.
- Weather. Record the last frost date in the spring and the first frost date in the fall. Also note unusually hot or cold weather, precipitation dates and amounts, storm information, and storm or wind damage to plants.
What you need to document your landscape:
- Notebook or journal. Use a separate page for each variety of plant so you can record all information for just one cultivar on a page.
- Camera. Take pictures of plants in various stages, matures sizes of plants, colors of leaves and flowers, weeds, pests, etc. Be sure to take pictures from the time you get the soil ready for planting, during the plant growth, and through the flowering/harvesting stages. Always include the date, time, location, and any special notes so you have your own personal information to use when planning for future landscape additions or changes.
Remember to track each plant from the beginning in your garden and throughout the year. Note successes to use next year and record what did not work so you won’t repeat mistakes. Put all pictures, landscape designs, seed packets, and plant labels in an envelope so you can easily locate information about your landscape.
Whew! I know that’s a lot of information, but it will be easier to keep it updated after the initial information is all recorded in the plant journal. I think I will spend the rest of this evening walking around the yard and making updates in the journal. This will all come in handy when I start a list of plants to look for in the fall, and I’ll need to get that completed in September before the Master Gardener Fall Plant Sale in October (that’s another topic I will talk about in a few weeks).
Here is an excerpt from my garden journal to show how I document with pictures.
The following pictures are from my garden journal and show the renovation of the back yard when I added garden beds, stone borders, and plants to reduce the amount of turfgrass. I still have some plants to add to the beds, and then I will finish them by spreading the 4 pallets of mulch in them. More plants will be added in the fall, the best time to plant trees, shrubs, and perennials.
The Big Country Master Gardener Association presents free education programs every month. There is a program at 6:00 p.m. on the 1st Tuesday of the month at the Abilene Public Library South Branch in the Mall of Abilene, and the same program is presented again at 10:00 a.m. on the 2nd Friday of the month at the Abilene Public Library in Abilene Heritage Square on S 1st Street. We also have a Master Gardener Saturday Seminar from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon on the last Saturday of the month from February through August in the Taylor County Extension Office Conference Room.
We are here to help you. If you have any questions, call the Taylor County Extension Office at 325-672-6048 or email us at bcmgardeners@yahoo.com. We hope you will visit our Facebook page, our website at bcmgtx.org, and the BCMGA YouTube channel for all Big Country Master Gardener information, events, and training.
Until next time… Happy Gardening!