Successful Record Keeping

 Twenty years ago, as an amateur astronomer with a new, bigger telescope, I had to decide whether to go digital or stay analog / hard copy with my atlases and observing logbook.  And I struggled.  

My digital attempts just didn’t work for me.  I scribbled onto loose notes in the dark while observing and then had to type them into my database / spread sheet at home.  Other observers had their laptops on site, blaring light – destroying their night vision / dark adaptation and wrecking dark conditions for the rest of us.  My current software wouldn’t ‘wrap’ notes. Things backed up and updating my digital log was a sad chore that fell way behind.  When the software changed was I going to be able to use my older versions? 

Looking back, I’m so glad I stayed with old fashioned, paper star atlases and handwritten logs.  It takes a major house fire to lose hard copies but only a computer glitch, upgrade, or crash to lose digital ones. A Kindle library is handy but inaccessible once the power goes out.

I’ve stuck with paper sheets for my Record Keeping of my gardening as well.  Each year I keep five kinds of records and they’re kept in different, and convenient, places. 

1) Seed Inventory.  Ultimately done each winter before or after my seed order.  I record Name, Seed Company, Date of Seed, Germination Rate: Company’s and Mine.

2) Seed Planted.  A record by date of what I’ve sown, usually indoors, how many seeds and pots, when it was moved outside, transplanted, that kind of thing.  It’s a great resource for looking back to see when each variety was seeded and how successful the timing was.  I even leave circled anecdotes for corrections for the next year’s timings, pot sizes, problems, etc.

3) Garden Map:  Up to 3 seasonal diagrams to show what went into each bed.  What amendments went in to fortify the bed and when, number of plants, or rows of varieties, important seed and plant spacings, when sown or transplanted, and number of square feet planted.  The smaller scale spring and fall maps show where the fall rye was planted and where the chickens have been and for how long.  

These diagrams are important and handy in planning rotations and successions and recalling and comparing dates.  The rotational goal is to not grow the same crop in that spot for at least four years.  Once again circled anecdotes for changes or improvements for the next year are a help.  This Garden Map sheet hangs near my tools so I can update it as I accomplish the different chores.  

4) Harvest Weights.  Most everything that is picked is weighed and recorded by variety in columns.  This sheet is taped to my inside garage door leading into the basement.  I weigh produce in the garage, record it with the pencil hanging on a string, and at the end of that season’s picking for that variety, I tally the total and write it in bold.  These records inform me where I’ve been successful and where productivity has gone down, especially when compared to pounds per square foot of bed space.  I currently have 6 years of harvest weight sheets on the door and a glance gives good comparisons of what happened previously.

5)  Watering Record.  With so little rainfall in my climate in the summer months, especially July and August, I print out a spread sheet grid that lists all my vegetables, vines, berries, grapes, trees, ornamentals, and flowers and on it I mark which day each was watered.  One sheet per month.  It is updated in the house each day when we take a load off our feet and a glance at it quickly shows what is in need of watering next day.  

Rainfall is recorded in mm. and helps guide when manual watering can be delayed.  This Watering Record list is handy when sharing the watering chore with my Lovely Wife or if we’re gone for awhile and we have our son drop by to look after the watering (and chickens) for us.

These five kinds of record sheets are clipped together, stacked with each of their own kinds from previous years.  That makes it easy to check what had happened in the years past.

I could get by with just one or two of these records – maybe just a map of the rotations and my watering record.  The least important one could be the seed Inventory, but that one is done in the winter and helps get the gardening planning going.  However, for optimum production, at least four of them are necessary.  

Without Successful Record Keeping I think I’d be doing the same things each year without ever optimizing my production.  There would be no evaluations, little fine tuning, no adjustments in timing, and little improvement in my gardening.  

My goal has been to learn how to grow good vegetables effectively.  I grow many things not because I can’t currently afford to buy replacements but because I want to know how to grow them when the time comes that I really need to.  And to share my knowledge when that time of need comes to others.  This gardening skill is sharpened with Record Keeping.

Happy Gardening.