A question I get asked often from new to herb gardening is how does a herb gardening journal work? I’ve answered this before, but with a twist. You don’t plant, harvest, or eat the herbs. They are consumed for their flavorful oils. The plant absorbs the nutrients, and the oils are then used for cooking and aromatherapy.
In an herb growing journal, you use a special journal to record the growing seasons, growing times and conditions, harvesting of the plants, how the herbs were planted and used and other thoughts about your garden. There are many ways to record the events in your garden, but what I have suggested is using a spiral notebook to record the events. This spiral notebook has a hole at the top so that you can hang it on your wall, or wherever you choose. Once each journal entry is written, it can be closed off with a lined slip knot, just like a regular spiral notebook.
One great way to use journaling to keep track of your garden is to create a scrapbook. There are many software programs on the market that will help you create beautiful scrapbooks with nothing more than a computer and some basic journaling software. Scrapbooks are wonderful for keeping a special keepsake such as a recipe card, or a copy of one of your plant’s leaves. A scrapbook can also be used to store photographs of your plants, memories of events and other thoughts that can be transferred to a journal.
Of course, most people just plant herbs outdoors. We see them sprouting up everywhere, and we enjoy watching them grow. But if you’re like me, you have a few indoor herb gardens as well. For my indoor herbs, I have used weekly herbs for our cookery needs, a few for adding scent to room fresheners, a few for seasoning and a couple for pest control. By planting the same variety of herb in various containers throughout the year, I have been able to have a varied range of uses for each plant.
With an herb gardening journal, you can keep track of what you planted, how the plant grew, how much you grew, and how each herb responded to the conditions it was given. If you were to harvest your herbs at any point, you can take notes on how the herb tasted. You can also note the time of harvest and how much of the herb you actually got rid of. If your herb plants went downhill, you can look at the reasons why. If they kept going down hill, maybe you weren’t watering them enough, or you didn’t place enough sun, or perhaps there were other insects causing issues.
The beauty of an herb gardening journal is that it keeps everything you grow fresh. It’s a great idea to save recipes for when you are in need of herbs to use during your cooking adventures. The recipes you create in your journal can be used as stand-by meals when your herb garden is overrun by pests or when you are looking for new herbs to add to your cooking.
One of the best ways I’ve found to document my herb growing journal is through the use of an online journal. With an online journal, you can easily update your herbs when needed without being concerned about losing the pages you wrote about your herbs. There are a few different types of online journals available, including those that are password-protected and those that require you to sign up as a member in order to access the pages. You can choose the type that best suits your needs and what you would like to do with your herbs journal.
A herb gardening journal can really help you keep track of what you are growing. This is especially helpful if you are just getting started with your own garden and you’re not yet experienced enough to know how much you should be growing in each area of your garden. You will eventually know how much to plant in certain areas and how much each plant should be getting but in the beginning it’s hard to predict these things. By keeping a weekly journal, you can note that plants are thriving and which ones aren’t doing so well. You can also make a note of which herbs you are growing in which areas of your garden so that you can continue to provide your family with tasty herbs year after year.