Well, I received my first seed catalogs of 2012 on December 7. Thank you Baker Creek Heirloom Seed and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange! Well, this got me thinking about the fact that it’s time to start a new garden journal.
My journal the first year was nothing more than a spiral bound notebook with a heavier duty cover and medium weight pages that I wrote in and attached seed packets to.
This worked fairly well, so last year I decided to follow the same program. Only this time, I picked a spiral with a heavy duty cover and recycled pages.
Bad move. The pages were far too flimsy to attach heavy (empty) seed packets or even photos too. In all fairness, a cardboard label, was probably pushing my luck on any kind of paper, but every time I opened the thing, the pages were in danger of ripping out. I really didn’t use it and as stated in my last blog, I wasn’t really in the mood to.
This did not mean however, that I wasn’t busy thinking about the perfect gardening journal. It would, at the very least, have a calendar in it, so that I could mark down temperatures. I tried doing that last year too, recording the daily temperatures. Let’s just say, there is a reason that I’m not a meteorologist. But at the very least, a calendar would be handy to quickly note the day that certain things were planted. Grant it, I was already noting the date in the journal whenever I would record what I was doing. But this was for future use. When I look back, I don’t want to have to read through my lengthy scrawl to find out when I planted something.
Well, anyway, back to the card making thing. Because of this hobby, I was in Archiver’s last Friday. They were featuring this spiral bound journal called a SLAM book. It was full of fun printed papers and came with a felt tip pen/glue stick. Basically the thing was a trendy scrapbook of your grandmother’s variety. They were also selling Brag Books. These had lined pages, followed by photo sleeves, followed by a pocket sleeve. They were retailing for the same price, $14.99. I couldn’t decide between the two. The SLAM book was so aesthetically appealing, but the brag book made more sense, except that it didn’t really have space to past things in (because you know, I couldn’t do it on a lined page. Note the sarcasm.) Anyway, before I could decide a light bulb popped on in my head. It said “hey stupid! You have all this card making stuff in your craft room. I bet is you put your mind to it, you could incorporate all the things of both books that you like into a three ring binder.
So, I came home, cut some scrapbook paper down to size. Pulled out some lined paper from a spiral bound notebook. Tore out some blank paper from a sketch pad. Then I painstakingly (because I’m NUTS) put them into the most aesthetically appealing order, varying the scrapbook paper with the lined and blank paper.
Next, I went to Office Max and obtained the following items:
1) a three ring binder with a pretty cover
2) a pencil case that can go in said binder
3) 8.5x11 photo sleeves that go in a three ring binder
4) A folder with pockets
I could have also obtained page dividers, but I have this punch (for card making) that creates page tabs, so I refrained from spending more money, because this is all about saving money.
I spent about $12 at Office Max. I know. For $3 more, I could have bought one of the other books. But it wouldn’t have had everything I wanted.
So, with three hole punch in hand, I punched my paper and folder, placed everything in the binder and was ready to go.
So, I went to my gardening supplies and retrieved my oh-so-sophisticated Ziploc bag of seed packets. I proceeded to put them into the photo sleeves.
I also added a piece of cardboard between the pencil pouch and the pages because pencil pouches do not make good writing surfaces. I need another between the seeds and the pages. Or maybe I’ll just move the seeds to the front. Do you see the genius of this?! You can rearrange it as you go so that it WORKS for you!
I’ve already started pasting things into my journal. What I’ve discovered, I should have bought a larger three ring binder.
1) a pen that you like writing with.
2) double sided tape. DO not attempt to use glue. It's messy and rumples the pages. Double sided tape is your best bet. The heavy duty stuff you have left over after covering your windows in plastic for the winter works great!
3) Scissors
4) Then, things you might want, charcoals, pastels or colored pencils, whatever you're most comfortable drawing with.
Oh, I forgot to mention (the drawing tools reminded me), you might also want to include some graph paper for garden layout.
Have fun assembling your garden journal and let me know if there is anything you would add that I forgot. I'm always looking for new ideas.
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