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
