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i brought a new diary for next year lets hope i stick to it because last year i just stopped keeping track.i even half filled the expert vegatable notebook. im useless keeping notes honestly.what does everyone else do? any tips?

start out with good intentions for a couple of months then get too busy and forget  ;D

right on the button.
i struggle reading my own writing anyway...lol
ill have to get the wife to do it.

This is my third year of diary keeping, they are standing against my wall next to the puter so I never forget to fill them in, and its handy to look back to 2007 and 2008 to see what you was planting and when.
For example Simmo did you know there was not a drop of rain in April 2007, the dryest on record.
On July 1st 2007 my plastic greenhouse was destroyed by the winds in my back garden.
Sad bastard, I know.     :-[     ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

I normally make incomprehensible notes which get rained on and become unreadable - then forget or just give up.
One day Ill get a speadsheet up and running to record it all.  One day.

I just have a notebook in my greenhouse that I fill in as I do anything (gardening orientated) then periodically I enter this ifo up into a data base.

See here; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Computers%20and%20gardening/Computers%20and%20gardening.htm

I like to make notes on bits of whatevers laying about, then lose them throughout the year. Easy.

In 2002 I began using a bound diary which I do not recommend because there is no good way to index it or finding comments when I want to eg. find out how good my bean crops compared year to year without wading through too any notes.  A looseleaf notebook would work better for me. Also I could add in the seed orders, equipment directions etc.

I've tried to do an index for it, but way too fiddly work.

The good part is the diary shows some of my efforts are paying off better than they did in 2002 mainly due to all the help at A4A.  :) :)  See, an Old Dog CAN learn new trix.

I'm the same as Northerner, but I am going to be better organised next year, honestly, defo, no problem!  :)

Lushy x

Simmo - I've never really kept a diary, so I'm not great at keeping a gardening one either. But I've been trying to use the Outlook diary programme on my computer. And like others with paper diaries it starts out ok then when summer comes and I'm busy the entries drop off! The neat thing about using Outlook is that if you are feeling really sad you can export it into Excel  ::) and from there it's easy peasy to find and organise annotations etc.

I kept copious notes for years and they do make for fascinating reading, going back over them but then I got to realise that most of it is now in my head and that making notes doesn't really change anything so now I opt for a more instinctive approach and boy does it feel so much more liberating - get a life, it's too short to stuff a mushroom  ;D

I have an A4 plastic leaf folder in which I keep a rotation plan, list of varieties grown each year with a line each for assessment of them, a sowing list broken down in weeks with notes if I delayed something or wish I'd planted it sooner/later to bear in mind for the next year, and a plot plan with the bed layouts and crops planted that year, different coloured pens used to show subsequent crops in the same bed. I also keep a photo of the plot showing what it looked like when I took it over, and the current year to keep me going....... ;D

We keep a plot plan, where we write down what goes into each bed, and a diary where we note what goes in when, and when things burst into life - e.g. first asparagus of the season etc.  Interesting to compare year on year.

i just stick to 3 notes

1. that's OK
2. that will do
3. i will do that next week

I was recommended a method by an elderley lady gardener.

She bought a large A4 page a day desk diary and writes garden notes in it whenever she remebers or wants to. You keep the same diary for years and just write on each day your entry but make a note of the different years (does that make sense?!) The idea is that over the years you will have different entries for the same date over several years and you just write in it when you fancy doing so! I've always found it hard to keep a journal/diary but this way there is no guilt if you don't write in the diary. My diary is now 5 years old and some dates have 5 years of entry on them others only 1 year, some have no entry. I like to make notes on what date things happen ... first daffodil out, first frost, when things sown etc etc. The first merthod of note keeping that has worked for me.

Quote from: glosterwomble on October 28, 2009, 22:33:38
I was recommended a method by an elderley lady gardener.

She bought a large A4 page a day desk diary and writes garden notes in it whenever she remebers or wants to. You keep the same diary for years and just write on each day your entry but make a note of the different years (does that make sense?!) The idea is that over the years you will have different entries for the same date over several years and you just write in it when you fancy doing so! I've always found it hard to keep a journal/diary but this way there is no guilt if you don't write in the diary. My diary is now 5 years old and some dates have 5 years of entry on them others only 1 year, some have no entry. I like to make notes on what date things happen ... first daffodil out, first frost, when things sown etc etc. The first merthod of note keeping that has worked for me.

i like this idea, as a chronic failure at keeping my notes continuous through out the year (like most of you i start with good intentions but always fall at the wayside). i really like this idea and can see it working especially at it eliminates the guilt of non entry.

its another reason i started my blog, which thankfully i have been a lot more consistant with.

I try to note the weather, what I've sown/planted what I've picked at least and then any other info I don't always succeed but over the last 5/6 years the reference has been really usefull

Another thing I've tried two years now is to walk through the garden and video it with my running comments for improvements. Usually it has to do with things getting too big or flopping over a walkway and needing to be moved or divided, but sometimes it reminds me why one color clashes with another, or how some extra stepping stones would help, or better edging etc.  It helps me remember that innocent Spring gardens become wild Summer jungles.

I do something simular to gloster wombles lady, i have an old fashioned five year diary its ben really inteesting and very useful for the first and last frost dates first flowers and i keep a score about seeds and varieties at the back two scores one for germination one for performance.

I also have a note book for old seed packets, bulb bunch labels and  photos but it does get a bit negelcted in the summer.! Its amazing how much you forget and knowing where you planted those bulbs is really helpful before you dig over a bed!
x sunloving

I have to admit i am a bit obsessive about keeping notes and records of what I have done in the garden. I keep a diary (A4 day to a page) where i note the weather, jobs done, jobs to to and observations on the day. it is nice to do as I can look back at what I was doing or what the weather was like 1 or 2 years ago. I try to keep it up as much as possible, although when I am busy this can be difficult.

I also keep a notebook where i can jot down ideas, plant names or make a note of sucessfull (or otherwise!) techniques I have used so that I dont forget how I have done something.