Dakota Gardener: How did your garden grow?

How did your garden season go? This summer I participated in three different NDSU Home Garden Variety Trials, and planted nine tomato plants, potatoes, beans, melons, cucumber, different squashes and much more. As I start to pull out plants and clean up my garden area, I cannot help but compare this season to the previous and how it helped prepare me for this year.

Now it may seem early for planning next year's garden, but while the garden season is fresh in my memory, I jotted down some notes for next year's garden. For example, nine tomato plants is way too many tomatoes for my house. I also want to try growing some other varieties of beans and squash that I discovered later in the season. Writing down these notes now gives me an advantage. When spring arrives, I will be able to remember thoughts of six months ago.

Garden journals are a great way to keep track of the random notes and ideas that might come up while you are gardening. They can help you keep track of what your soil test results were and what amendments were made. Or they can help you remember where you planted your tomatoes for crop rotation. These journals do not have to be pretty, or on paper. Keeping a list of things on your phone is a way of keeping a garden journal. Composition notebooks are also handy if you prefer a pen and paper approach.

Journaling can be an artistic expression of the garden as well as a scientific one. Instead of recording the insects that visit your garden and the height of plants, try taking leaf rubbings of plants with interesting leaves, or looking at the blooms and recording all the colors that can be found in the garden. Look at the layout and design of your current garden and see what changes would be beneficial and sketch them out.

The joy of a garden journal is it can be anything you want it to be. My journal is a folder covered in mud smears with lists of flower varieties to try, thoughts on designs and germination times. It's where I play with different design ideas and sit and record the things I see and hear in my garden. It leads to discoveries such as native bee species I have not seen before and discovering that I do not love zucchini enough to grow two plants.

As this garden season ends, consider starting a garden journal for next year.