This is my first time planting, and because my ambitions trump my abilities at least 50% of the time, I have literally written down every single action I've performed thus far, including a digital photo log. And here I thought my OCD had run wild.

These journaling tips and links are so, so very helpful! I had to *squeee* a little bit at mention of Excel

Linda

Ann,
I use a hybrid approach. The very most important thing for me is pictures pictures pictures! I take tons of them all the time. They help me tremendously as I can go back and see when something was coming up, when it bloomed, what was next to it, etc. I save all my pictures by date. I had to get one of those external hard drives to store pictures because I took up all the memory on my computer!

This past year I also starting taking a picture of each plant I brought home and a good clear picture of its tag.

I also use Excel spreadsheets. I have one each year for seed starting. I also have one master spread sheet that is an inventory of all of my plants. I assign each bed a name and as needed I can sort my spread sheet by bed or alphabetically.

I also finally got all my plants entered here on ATP. So far I have not used the growers report feature. But I plan to this year.

My biggest challenge is making the time to document things in the heat of the moment. Summer is not very long here in Michigan so a lot happens all at once. I definitely use the winter down time to go back and fill in the gaps. Not always easy because I have too much in my head to remember everything. But for the most part I get the important details documented.

Clear as mud?

Thank you for starting this thread! Great topic

Hi Linda,

You are so good to keep such thorough notes from the start. I really regret that I haven't. If you like the excel idea, I've seen masterful spreadsheets on some of the gardening blogs. Maybe poke around google to see some. Good luck on your maiden planting voyage!

Hi Jennifer,

Kudos to you for the amount of pics you take! I don't think I've ever used all the memory on any computer : ) I thought I took adequate pics but realized this winter in review, that I do not. I don't know if you read Greene's suggestion of using stepping stones as place markers to take consistent pics of your garden through out the season and years. I seem to take pics willy nilly of what looks good at any given time. So per you, I'm going to up my pic taking and per Greene, set some markers to get consistent views of the garden.

I like the idea of taking pics of the tags then you don't have that bag of tags to dig through. Good idea!

As much as I thought excel was a bit intense for me, I do realize the value in it once it's together. So I'd like to ask what all do you put on your spreadsheets?

I 100% agree with your last paragraph. Who wants to do paperwork when you can be in the garden?!

Thanks for sharing!

On my seed starting spread sheet I have columns for the following

Annual or Perennial
Latin name
Common/cultivar name
Height
Number of seeds sown
Date sown
Date of first sprout
Total number germinated
Notes
vendor of seeds

On my master inventory sheet:
Source/vendor of plant
Latin name
Common/cultivar name
Notes
Year obtained
Bed location

I don't keep a ton of info on my master inventory sheet. The details are in my pictures.

So helpful!(and do-able) Thank you Jennifer : )

I am really not very good at excel. I know I could get it to do so much more. But I've figured out the basic functions I need and I can use it without cursing now (well not too much anyway )

And really, it might take you a few seasons to boil down what really works for you. Everyone is different.

My neighbor who grows as much or more than I do just cannot understand why I feel the need to label every single plant Actually I don't understand it either. I just do

Gosh -- you're all far more organized than I am. I keep a hard covered journal close by but I jot everything down in it; not just plant names, but other stuff that would otherwise be on a piece of paper and end up in a black hole somewhere.
I do, however, put all my seed packets in a photo album - and I do keep seeds in old prescription bottles (with labels).

Hi Elfie,

You sound pretty organized to me! But I subscribe to the piece of paper/black hole philosophy ; ) I like the photo album and labeled pill bottle idea. And I think however I decide to get organized will include a journal for notes, as you use. Thanks for sharing!

Excel Update:

I officially have all my seeds in excel. I put them on separate pages as follows:
Winter Sow 2015
Direct Sow 2015
Winter Sow 2014
Random Seeds

I may consolidate the different years at some point once I figure out how I want that to look.

The columns are as follows:
common name
latin name(if on packet, because I'd like to learn them. eventually ; )
variety
brand
purchased from
price
annual/perennial
year purchased
date sown
column for notes
(On the seeds started last year, I used red text if there was something I want to follow up on this year.)

I'm sure I'll add some more columns as I get further along the growing process.

The thing I was most excited about was, as I started a page on plants in my garden, I figured out I could put a hyperlink and so I could link to a plant database or the description from the grower or my own pics. I've only just started this with my first garden page which is roses. I'm now realizing, if I were inclined I could go back and do that w/my seeds, but I think I'll wait on that, especially since I have the seed packets handy.

Progress is reported! Thanks for everyone sharing because not only were you all a great source of information but motivation as well!

>> And here I thought my OCD had run wild.

It's a little-known fact that the original term was "Obsessive Seed Disorder", a.k.a. O. Seed D. I think the first cases occurred shortly after agriculture was invented - or maybe it was a very early gardener with O. Seed D. who invented agriculture!



I have trouble with Excel because i can never remember to hit "CTRL+ENTER" instead of just "ENTER". I mostly use MS Word, especially the "Tables" feature.

When I started seedling trays, when I potted up, and when they went outside, are things I wish I would record more faithfully!

Rick, pray tell, what is the purpose of "Ctrl + Enter" in Excel? I've never used that for anything. Am I missing something?

RickCorey said:>> When I started seedling trays, when I potted up, and when they went outside, are things I wish I would record more faithfully!

Those are the only things I DO enter faithfully, lol... I wish I could remember to record bloom times and bloom periods in my garden so I don't have to rely on generic estimates when planting things "to bloom together." Also, whether something survived the winter here--and what the low temps were average that year... useful stuff, too, I'm sure.

Woofie, I should have said "ALT+ENTER". When entering text into a cell, I often want a new line. In every other SW that I know, "ENTER" inserts a newline into text.

In XLS, it sends my cursor to the next-lower cell and wipes out all prior text in that cell, and replaces it with the new text I'm typing.

You would think that, by now, I would have TWO habits: one for every other text-entry SW on the planet, and another habit for MS XLS. But I have not yet been fully assimilated.

Taqiyyah, bloom time (or, in my case, "harvestable time") would be valuable too. I'm still feeling around for basics like "they SAY I should plant peas weeks before the last frost, BUT mine rot that early". Of course, weather vairiation from year to year defeats a lot of that ambition, but if I kept any kind of decent records, I COULD know more than I now remember.

"I mostly use MS Word, especially the "Tables" feature. "



I use the same feature in WordPerfect !
Sorry, I just don't find Excel very user friendly... and don't need all its features for my purposes.

Heh, I love Excel and use it for nearly everything.

I overdosed on Excel at work. They love to throw EVERYTHING into one spreadsheet, with columns going out to double-letters and rows that fill an entire screen.

The filters can be handy.

Weedwhacker said: "I mostly use MS Word, especially the "Tables" feature. "



I use the same feature in WordPerfect !
Sorry, I just don't find Excel very user friendly... and don't need all its features for my purposes.

I print labels for seed packets double-sided, and edit the tables for them on facing pages. By carefully matching the margins, when I print double-sided, the cells "line up" and I have double-sided seed-packet labels.

That's mostly useful when making multiple labels for the same thing, when I split a large packet of lettuce seeds into many smaller trade packets.

I can type up one label, with a cell for each side. Then copy-paste to fill a whole page with the same label.

I have loved seeing all the suggestions. Here some of my sheets:

Seed Inventory sheet:
Botanical Name
Common Name
Variety
Color
Type, i.e. annual half-hardy perennial, etc.
SMT short medium or tall (this helps when deciding where in the flower bed to plant)
Height
Spacing
Bloom season
Irrigation, i.e. high, moderate, low
Exposure, i.e. full sun, partial sun, shade
Source
Year bought
Viability in years, estimated (so I know if I need to test the seeds before going crazy sowing)
Zones (i.e. 3-9 or annual)
WS yes/no to winter sowing

Seed Starting sheet:
tab name is season/date, i.e. spring2015
Variety i.e. Cosmos 'Candy Stripe'
Germination info:
Sown date
Germination date
#Days
# Germinated
Comments: such as 'Winter sown; just cover seeds' or 'Indoors; surface sown'
Potting Up info:
Date
#
Comments
Setting Out info:
Date
Location
Comments
Future info:
Suggestions: i.e. I've read/seen, ideas I have, what went terrible wrong or awesomely right
Adjusted sowing dates (incase I sowed too late or early and want to try different timing next time)

I use Excel filters when I just want to see what I've winter sown or just seeds that are hardy perennials, and so on, when I'm planning. I am just trying to get to what works and what doesn't work, so I can have mooooooooooooooooooooooore plants!

Bonnie