The Garden Notebook

               Four years ago, I started a weekly entry garden book, based upon the weeks of the year. Each week is a page with brief entries for ever year. After I figured out how to count the weeks—no mean feat—it worked.  I figured I’d have six years on the page; after four years, I think I’ll come closer to twelve. The process takes about five minutes a week, either on Saturday morning or when I do something significant during the week. This year, it has really begun to prove useful.

                It’s been cold. But, in early March, I always think that it has been cold and damp for a very long time. This year, thanks to my lovely garden book. I have evidence. Usually, the daphne is blooming by now. Some years, the camilla is covered in blossoms. The plums are blooming. This year—nothing. Buds, but no blooms. I am right. It has been cold. There has been snow.

                Because it has been cold, I feel like I am falling behind.  I should have beds covered with the hoops and plastic, prepped and planted, I think. I am a season pusher….but, when I check my notebook, I see that, really, I am on schedule. Seeds are all ordered. With the laurel hedge whacked back and the debris hauled to the compost area, I have completed pruning. I have cabbages and broccoli bumped up and under the greenhouse light. The tomatoes are just emerging in my warm classroom. I am on schedule. I am just chilly while working.

                The notebook is helping in other ways, as well. I make notes to my future self on posties and place them on the appropriate week as reminders. I have maps and seed order forms from previous years so that I have a better grasp of rotations. I have a section for next year’s plans, so that I remember to dig out the gooseberry and move it in the fall. I track rainfall in the winter, cucumber harvests and canning schedules in the summer. I know when I got that swarm of bees last spring and the last year we brought home chicks. I know when to hunt for eggs, because this flock refuses to lay in the coop. I had general knowledge in the past, but now, there is data. Evidence. I like it.