I wish I were more organized re: garden. I don't think I'd be able to keep exacting records like you do, but I do wish I could get into the habit of at least marking down somewhere, somehow what is planted where. I admit it is enjoyable when something just "pops up" and I can't remember anything about it, but many times it's very frustrating to see a particular plant and not remember its name. I think this sort of thing has everything to do with personality; I know all about plant markers, databases, etc. I probly have the time. I just can't make myself do it consistently. Once you mentioned making sort of maps of each planting area and indicating on them what is planted. I think that's something I should really try to do; in fact, that may be on the New Year's Resolution list!

With all the frustration I have with plant location markers disappearing, I needed to come up with some way of keeping track of what is planted where. Most of my garden areas, like yours, are pretty large. It isn't enough to just indicate in my records that something is planted in the Lemon Garden because the Lemon Garden is at least 60 feet long. I know the genus of each plant by sight, but the tricky part is knowing the id of the specific cultivar. In most cases, I have many in each garden area.

I came up with the idea of driving tent stakes into the ground at 5 foot intervals. Now in my hand drawn map and in my database for the Lemon Garden I have twelve sections: 0-5 feet, 5-10 feet, 10-15 feet...

With my goal of getting rid of piles of hardcopy, I scan my hand drawn maps. I played with a rudimentary word document for the map concept too. I just insert a table with columns and rows and list the plants in each cell. The word document is much neater but doesn't have the personal flair of my hand drawn maps. Not sure which way I want to go with that.

I'd probly go with the hand-drawn maps. Even if they aren't to scale, just having a fairly good idea of what is planted where would be very helpful. You know, I think instead of talking about this, I'm going to do it. The first bed will be my Top Border which is almost exclusively Iris, many of which I can still find the varietal names. It's a long narrow rectangle so should be a good first try! Thanks for inspiring me!

Ladies, I admire you but it all makes my head spin!