Well I do what you described, but I think I have fewer columns. The other thing I do is place the seeds under the month they are to be sown. Then leave a few lines and start the next month.

In the few lines I leave at the bottom of the month, you can add as many as you want.....I type in any special notes or observations. If something has to be started earlier the next year or if something fails completely. Stuff like that.

Sierra

OK, cool - so more like a database, or maybe even a .doc.....Hmmm. I can reorder the spreadsheet, so I can order it alphabetically, or by start date. Or my height - good for my annuals, for placement; or sun/shade - same.

Thanks, Nancy.

Oh, I love lists! I make lists of everything, including things for the garden. I have a whole folder on the computer with documents on plants. One is 'Plants to Get', 'Plants to Move', one for general Notes.
Another one is 'Plants in the Garden', which has a table drawn out with several categories. The first is for the Genus and Species of the plant, 2nd for its common name, 3rd is its cultivar name, and the last is for flower/foliage color.
For me, it is not really neccisary to have a section for bloom time, but you can always add one for that and any thing else that is important.
CMK

All Right, CMK!!! So, not bloom times, but do you track planting time; sun/shade; best place to plant!!???

Nancy.

I love the by month thing. I have seen some orchard gardening calendars and think that is a very good thing.

You just check each month and see what needs to be done.

I do a simple journal in a notebook, but then you have to search through it to find what you did when. The computer is the way to go....you can always use the search feature to find the plants.

Now I have something to do this winter...great idea, Nancy.

I do have a spreadsheet where I put each plant I purchase, price, from whom and where I planted it in the garden. I am not good to follow up with how it did though.

I, too, have kept spreadsheets for many years, but only for the vegetables. I've got a chance to keep that updated. The thought of all the flowers would overwhelm me...
Kris

Maybe I'm a bit more "old fashioned" but I just keep a spiral notebook. Half the standard size but thick. That way I can take it out with me on walks through the gardens and jot down what has begun to bloom, still blooming, what I need to add and where, etc. I try to keep it handy at all times, and add the day's date whenever I take it out with me. Any new additions to the garden, wish list, etc get added. Notes for ideas go in the margins as I am walking around, ie add something white & spiky along fence, more small bulbs next fall. I also have some lists of big groups of plants like my roses on the computer but I like my little notebooks better. I'm not as computer savy as many of you!

I guess I'm old fashioned too, just a notebook for me. I keep diagrams of where things are planted just so I don't accidentally dig them up. I rarely have to refer back to it though, because I remember things better after I write it down, or else I sometimes just stick my finger into the soil to see if there's anything down there. Ha, ha, I guess that is old fashioned all by itself. I can't imagine maintaining a spreadsheet for my garden, I don't like computers that much. I bet most of the computer gurus are younger people and the others are like me, well, call me vintage. Cheryl

Well, with experience you get to know the plants and don't have to keep track of things like sun/shade and where to plant. I try to keep my records as simple as possible.

I also have file folders in my seed box. So the seed is filed by the month that it is sowed. When my seed order arrives it only takes a few minutes to pop them into the right files...and add them to the spreadsheet.

I have another file of my seed/plants/supply orders and when/who I ordered from, and when they arrived. Prices and if there was any problems or back orders.

And if I see colour combos that I like, I also have a file for that....I never type in the plants or anything like that. Just use the colour...kind of like a colour chart. For perennials I use the plop it in the bare spot method. :O

Another thing I started doing is drawing a diagram on the computer of any new beds...then label the plants by number. Underneath the diagrams, I put the number and what each plant is and variety name. Of course I doubt that this will be kept updated. lol. It would work well for my perennial beds....but takes a lot of time. I am sure I will look back at these in a few years, when everything has change and wonder what I was doing. Oh well it will show where each bed started.

Janen, I used a notebook for years, but find the computer is much faster when I need to find something.

Sierra

The computer is so much easier! If a plant dies :-( or I plant some new ones :-) I can add or take out a plant from the rows. I once had a little notebook but found it cumbersome. I brought it outside with me and forgot where it was. And the dirty thumb prints and watermarks made it almost imposible to read! So every year I print out a list of 'Plants in Garden' to keep handy. You can always take notes on the back side of the pages.

-Nancy, my document for 'Notes' is where I put all of my ideas for the next year and where it is I want to plant something. I also keep a list of various chores (like amending soil or pruning a shrub) in my 'Plants to Move' document, which also lists plants I need to divide.
I can see the importance of having a category for bloom times. Oh, I love lists!
Ps. It is also a good idea to keep the lists of plants in your gardens in alphabetical order, or else you may be searching for hours for info on a certain plant!
CMK

You don't need to bother with alphabetical order, just simply click on edit at the top, then click on find. Then type in what you are looking for...it shows it by hilighting it. Less time than searching and scrolling down your alphabetical list to find what you are looking for.

Cheryl, I'm not as young as you might think.

Sierra who likes to do gardening chores as fast as possible. LOL

Hey, anyone who has a Traffic album ain't young!! lol. The thing I like about the Spreadsheet is I can reorder it to suit my purpose. Plants by A-Z, planting times, what I have for shade - I never have enough for shade, etc., etc.
I am working on a master diagram, to keep track of spring bulbs and colours, which will help me in years to come with new purchases. The calendar will help me time things better, and hopefully help me to stop beating myself up about being behind in these tasks!! lol.

Nancy.

Lol on this - I just over the weekend started a spreadsheet to try and track my crop rotations for the veggie garden, since it is expanding to a point that I know that I won't be able to keep track. It also helped me narrow down where I wanted to plant certain things, to make the crop rotation easier.

I do keep my garden plans in AutoCAD, but since I'm an architect, that's to be expected. ;) I also keep an annual garden journal, to list ideas, note when to plant stuff, when stuff bloomed, etc. I go back to my journals sometimes, though probably not as often as I should. Since I got a digicam last year, I am taking a lot more photos to also track how things are doing. Since I order most of my perennials from Bluestone and do it online, I also sometimes go back to my order lists when I can't remember variety names, etc.

Yep old fasioned here. I ask Diane, "what did I plant here?".

The simpler the record keeping, the more likely it will be kept up.

After several trials, I determined this to be my best plan: Make a folder under 'Documents' on my computer.
Put Files made in a word processor into this Folder, each named for a flower bed or garden area.
ADD a recent photo of the area in each file.
Write a few lines about what I hope to accomplish in this bed and how it looks right now. Be sure to DATE the notes.
Make a table with four columns and as many rows as there are plants in the bed.
Label the columns: Cultivar - Planted - Outcome - Comments

Save the File, return to it as I make changes or remove plants or need to record new ideas. Add pics as the bed changes.

Sometimes I make little sketches using 'Paint' just to record where I hid bulbs so I won't forget. All you need is a bunch of little circles and squares. Label them the way that is easiest. Save as a .gif file and insert it the way you add a pic.

Everything is in one place for a particular garden area, for reference.

Nell

For a more elaborate record:

Use a Spreadsheet if you're following a budget and keeping up with expenditures, or keeping up with how many hundreds of daffodils and lilies.

Use a separate Database if you want to keep up with a large number of different cultivars, i.e. naming all your different tulips and muscari, or planting a dozen different heucheras and dozens of different hostas.

The simpler the record keeping, the more likely it will be continued.

Good point - the KISS principle!! Irene, I bought a what I thought was a simple CAD program. I said to the 12 year old - it must be simple, for an analogue brain, and be under $40. lol. Never have been able to to Thing 1 with it!!

Nancy.

I use several methods and have written about these on my blog, Defining Your Home Garden:

Garden Plan, Garden Map or Garden Photos

Organizing Photos with Keywords

Using Worksheets for Garden Records

Using a Camera for Garden Journals

Hope these are helpful articles,
Cameron

Nancy - Lol. I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a good, simple CAD program for such things. I started learning AutoCAD back in college - I took a class on it, and really only learned the basics. (It was actually a community college summer class, since my university didn't have classes in the regular architecture curriculum back then.) That was, um, about 20 years ago, and I use it almost every day, and am still learning new things, although I got to a fair level of proficiency within a few months of my first CAD drafting job.

Gardens can be particularly complicated in CAD, since they tend to have a lot of curves and not just straight lines. (Hmmm...I wonder if this is part of why my garden actually has so many straight lines?)

So, anyhow, don't feel too bad about not being able to pick it up quickly...

I was struggling with exactly what I wanted to do with a garden journal, and eventually decided to organize thing with photos in Flickr sets.

That way I can have sets for plants that I seed save as well as monthly and yearly records of what's growing. You can put in good sized comments and also keywords and it's easy to go back and find things.

Photos can go in more than one set, so I can make one set for the day I took the photos and still add one of those photos to a cosmos set or whatever.

I keep a list of seeds and sowing records - just in table in standard document format on my computer. But for plant details it's just easier for me to store them as easy to browse photos.

Lynda

Here is a link that might be useful: Flickr photos sets example for garden journal