How to Use the Garden Planners

(And why you need one)

There are tons of spreadsheets, apps, printable and printed garden planners and journals on the market, so why would you choose mine?

Black & White on the left, Color on the right

Why you would choose this garden planner:

• You are a beginner gardener

  
  

• You are an experienced gardener who wants to be more organized or goal-focused

  
  

• You want to keep your garden on-budget

  
  

• You want to keep your hobby low-tech or you prefer real paper in your hands

  
  

• You enjoy journalling

  
  

• You want to enjoy your garden more

  
  

• You want something you can take into the garden with you (while this is not the least expensive garden planner on the market, it costs considerably less to replace than a smartphone or tablet)

  
  

• You prefer to keep your planning and your record keeping separate

  
  

• You recognize that "free" isn't really free once you account for the cost of paper, printer ink and a binder

  
  

• You like to use tools that are both functional and attractive

  
  

The following items are nice to have when planning your garden, but aren't strictly necessary:

• Page Tabs make it easy to quickly find the page you need

  
  

• Erasable Gel Pens  or colored pencils will allow you to color-code, make changes and erase mistakes. Of course, a good, old-fashioned number 2 pencil will work just fine too.

  
  

• Seed Envelopes allow you to organize open seed packages and save seeds from this year's crops to plant next year's garden

  
  

• Bookmarks, binder clips or paper clips to keep track of your spot

  
  

Some people prefer their most-used books to be spiral bound, comb bound or in a 3-ring binder. While I prefer spiral myself, the cost and logistics of producing a spiral book were prohibitive. You can always choose to take the planner (or any book you own, really) in to a print shop and have it spiral bound.

What Pages are Included in the Garden Planners:

• 12, 2-page Month-At-A-Glance, UNDATED because life happens

  
  

• Pages for notes, brainstorming and mind mapping before you begin planning

  
  

• Pages for inventorying seeds, tools, books, garden chemicals and existing garden plants including herbs, perennials, container plants and orchard trees & shrubs

  
  

• Pages to record your favorite websites and apps, garden suppliers, instructions for garden chemicals

  
  

• Quick-reference pages for Companion Planting, Seed Viability, Trap Crops and Helper Plants

  
  

• Page to record your growing zone, frost dates, soil type, average annual precipitation and gardening goals

  
  

• Pages to plan out seed starting and tree and plant purchases

  
  

• Project pages to help with budgeting time, materials and money

  
  

• Seed, supply, book and plant shopping lists

  
  

• 3x9 and 4x8 raised bed layout planning pages

  
  

• row crop and high tunnel layout planning pages

  
  

How the COLOR and BLACK & WHITE planners are different:

• Functionally, they are identical

  
  

• The black & white version uses a sans serif font and does not have illustrations embedded in the planner pages. Black and white costs significantly less to print, so the savings are passed on to you. The cover has a black border and a matte finish.

  
  

• The color version uses a serif font, and has transparent color illustrations embedded in the planner pages. The cover has no border and a gloss finish.

  
  

Fair warning, I have atrocious penmanship.

Below, I've created a photo gallery showing some examples of how you might choose to use the pages in the color garden planner. The photos are from the color version of the planner. The black and white version does not have illustrations on the planning pages, though some of the section title pages do have greyscale illustrations. You can click on any of the images to enlarge and get a better look.

As you work through the Expected Harvest chart and the "What Does Your Garden Grow" pages, you can transfer the dates into your calendar pages. The planner is intentionally undated so that if you need to stop using it for a time, you haven't wasted your investment. Maybe your growing season is only 3 months, you had a health setback or your job kept you out of the garden last year. You can start where you are without wasting pages or having to order a new planner.

The bottom line is that these planners are designed so that you can use them the way that best helps you to succeed in your food gardening endeavor.