I guess I'm not going to be of much help as my record keeping is mainly relegated to a spreadsheet. I have one spreadsheet folder that is continuously expanded each season. It shows a graphical row layout plan of future planned, current, and historical gardens. The second spreadsheet folder is also continuously expanded and shows an item list of lessons learned, notes, suggestions, etc. A separate list is recorded for each of my historical yearly spring & fall gardens. If I were so inclined (which I am not) I would also keep seeding data, harvest data, etc. in the same spreadsheet as separate folders.

....I just find spreadsheets to be a bit more efficent and space-saving for record keeping than paper.

So far I've just been using Excel. Might make my own iPhone app also though, as I am a programmer.

Given that I grow a lot of similar stuff year-to-year one thing I keep track of is weather patterns. I don't do daily updates. I keep it generalized. If the weather is high 80s and partly cloudy for 5-10 days I just note that. If there's an extreme temperature spell I note that. If there's an unusually heavy rain (or period of lack of rain) I note that. I also note my manual watering schedule in between what nature provides. I've had summer seasons where I've only manually watered 5-10 times a season because nature played well with the garden. In between all of it I can get a general view of how the plants are responding.

I know what you mean about the computer. I use the GrowVeg Planner, but for daily notes I prefer pen and paper.

Four years ago I received Lee Valley's garden journal for Christmas, and I love it. It has ribbon markers so you don't lose your place, but it's easy to go back to previous years to see variety names and planting dates. I like being able to give some plantings stars and exclamation points, or clearly print "crop failure".

I started with a three ring binder back in the late 1970's, simply writing things down chronologically. It worked for me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lee Valley Garden Journal

Thank you for the input so far. Some of the things I am hoping to keep track of are varieties and where I source them from and how much I paid, when I got things in the ground, weather patterns, watering, etc. I need the careful tracking to help (hopefully) keep a lid on costs and because of my dry climate, I need to start experimenting with the watering to see what I can get away with in drought years and to help me make informed decisions.

Also, because I have permanent beds, I also want to track what I am doing with soil amendments. Some beds have horse manure that was contaminated with clopyralid, some have a mix of compost, etc., so I want/need to figure how to optimize things a little further. I will definitely check out the garden journal too.

I've used a three year spiral bound journal; going on my third . Partitioned off in four seasons, three months each, and the same stuff, (i.e. setting out garlic, starting tomatoes from seed) tends to line up next to each other. Prompts for wether, maintenance, band keeps your place or keeps it closed,and there is a pocket or two.

But I would love a way to use my tablet, with the camera/movie unrecorded in ten garden.

This is the one I've used.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Western Garden Journal

Tishtosh -- I like to do the journal by hand, too.
I also use spiral ring.
Divided into 4 sections, each marked with one of those colorful stickies, which can move as I write my way through the notebook in each section.

1. work log, where I write weather conditions and what I did in the garden, so I know what chores were done when each year (and can get an idea if it was a good time to do them.) If I plant something, I draw an arrow in the margin, so plantings are easy to find, and above the arrow I write what ammendments I used when planting.

2. Notes. This section has random things I don't want to forget--anything from info on varieties to food storage methods, along with warnings, like: don't plant radishes in with mesc mix as you can't tell radish greens from arugula.

3. Harvests. Shows dates and amounts of harvests. At first this helped me know I was making a profit and let me know how much I could spend guilt free on next years inputs. Now (because I'm so far ahead $ wise) it's to let me know when things come on year to year. Or to calculate things like, I just figured out that whether I planted broccoli in early April or in late May, it always took 7 weeks to maturity, so I need to look ahead 7 weeks and make sure I won't be traveling when the broccoli comes on.

4. money spent. This only takes one page, but I like keeping track.

I use a new notebook each year, and each one is labeled on the front so I can compare year to year, too. GREAT winter entertainment, and also a great way to learn what works and what doesn't.

Enjoy your journaling!

Elisa

If nothing else, the spreadsheets can set a template for saving data and then organizing. My first task of every season is seed inventory with purchase dates, type, subtype, maturity date, etc. ; the organization of the spreadsheet and ability to sort is important to me. Crop mapping is handy with notes to indicate wether you want to expand of delete planting of a certain crop or variety. naturally if you use pesticides you should keep a record of applications.

A journal or diary is for someone who wants to leave a legacy. If you want to be able to make decisions from year to year you need a quickly accessable record. The computer is fantastic at making that part work.