Keeping a record!

[veggiechicken]

How do you record what you do in the garden and do you compare dates, year on year?
Every year I start a diary - but I seem to run out of steam mid year!
What I really need is one that would record several years for comparison purposes. I tried a 5 year diary but there wasn't enough space some days.
Any ideas please - its coming up to that time when I have to decide what to buy!

[scarletrunner]

Googling vga live is worth a look,i use it and it is free!

[Aberdeenplotter]

I use a lever arch file with indices and a section for each vegetable. Really need that especially for the exhibition stuff. Easy to update but I also record sowing dates in my diary and forward mark my next years diary so that I can see in advance what I need to prepare for.

[Alison]

I use a spreadsheet for each year. At the start of the year I do an inventory of my seeds, mark down how many I have and how many I want to sow. Edit sowing times if necessary based on the previous years data and then can search from that on what I need to do each month. As seeds germinate I'll add that info and any comments re taste / success etc. Works well and being on the 'puter is easy to search etc.

[greenishfing]

I am totally disorganised and have never managed to keep any sort of diary past the end of January so my solution is to keep my digital camera in my handbag and take lots of photos weekly (more or less). The good thing about digital photos is they record the date they were taken. At the end of the year I put them onto a dvd for that year. It's the best I can manage and at least I can access them quickly. I might change from dvds to memory sticks now that they hold a lot of data for a reasonable size.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I just use a lined A5 book. Every year the first 3 pages are for general remarks on the weather. Then vegi's in alphabetical order. I record type of compost, sowing and germination times with the results. Potting on and planting out times. Date and size of harvest and of course if its something new taste etc.

Colion

[binley100]

I start each year with good intentions................

[veggiechicken]

So far, much as I expected, everyone does it differently
Scarletrunner - I've just signed up to VGAlive - its very clever - but am I organised enough? I was a bit alarmed when it said List your seeds!!
Spreadsheets I'm not really competent enough to set them up and Digital photos - I take lots but have lost the date setting on the camera In fact I'm a total incompetent with anything technical!
Writing it down in some form appeals the most and I'm toying with a loose leaf binder for each month, that I could add pages to, year on year. I suspect Jan - March will be well recorded and by July - nothing will
Thanks for your thoughts - so many good options

[northepaul]

I try to get one of those student diaries for each year (if you get it after the beginning of Jan, they're abit cheaper) so it has plenty of space per page to write down everything, and I try to include diagrams and pictures if I remember, sometimes old seed packets if they've been particularly successful, so I can get them again.

I also include cooking and preserving in it, I forgot. Plus if I go to anything (like the Chilli Festival or River Cottage)

[Andromeda]

My growing journals consist of an A4 note book every year with 1 full page (both sides) per seed type.
Sowing date (and medium - bought compost or home made)
Germination rate
Potting on dates
When hardening off commenced
Planting out date and location
Any infection issues
How many made it to full size
Final product analysis - visual quality (often with picture), flavour, how well it kept (if applicable), storage notes.
Any other information
Will I grow it again?

I make sure I leave space for a detailed contents page at the front. Notes about the weather or any other environmental issues go at the back and a round up of the growing season is filled in at teh end of the vegetable and fruit listings.

Growing season dates are put on the front and spine of the book, and the journal is then kept for reference...I've been doing this for 20 years and those books have been invaluable.

[Feral007]

If it's not in my blog it didn't happen.............or at least I didn't take a photo of it. I am so not organised. And I'm not afraid to say I never will be. I have a least another 4 lives left in me so I'm sure I'll get round to the recording of the veg in one of them

[Bigmallly]

The only spreadsheet I use is one with sowing times.......I just don't have time to record anything else. Maybe when I retire & have more time on my hands...............sorry VC, I know this is of no use to your original post.

[Bigmallly]

In an attempt to redeem myself, is something like this of any use VC?.........it has pretty good reviews.

The Three-Year Allotment Notebook: Amazon.co.uk: Joanna Cruddas, Edwina Sassoon: Books

[veggiechicken]

Thanks everyone. I'm just as confused as ever!! As you know I am not an organised person but there's a bit of me that keeps trying to be I like looking back at what I did on the same day in previous years. Some days I need an A4 page - others are completely blank! I want to record the weather, wildlife, what's in flower, and these things spill over into what I did, who I met, what I ate...much like the drivel that spills out of me on here. My apologies
Maybe next year it will be an undated journal, so that I'm not constrained by a few lines in a conventional diary - or feel guilty if I don't write something each day!

[vikkib]

I started using a g**gle calendar last year to try and keep track of what I had done when and where but I ran out of steam too!

It's nice and easy to use and to search. I colour coded it so that I used one colour for when I planned to do things and another for when they actually happened!

I used it to set reminders too which was handy.

Determined to do better this year!