Handmade Journals : Garden Journals

Why not make your own garden journal? This page gives you some suggestions for content and construction, as well as providing a video demonstration and links to online resources.

If you are interested in both gardening and paper crafts, you will love having a hand made garden journal to record the details of your garden projects. On the other hand, if you enjoy paper crafts but you don't have a garden, consider that these journals are great gifts for gardeners. The best thing about a hand made journal lies in the versatility you have at your fingertips. You can customize it to suit the recipient.

These hand made books are simple enough to make. You need a selection of cardstock or scrapbook paper, book board or cardboard for the covers, a means to bind the books, and of course, cutting tools and adhesives. Let your creativity run free when it comes to embellishing or trimming the books.

On this page, I'll be showing you the covers and insides of two garden journals I made as gifts.

A Plants Journal is A Yearly Record of Your Garden

Gardeners maintain gardening journals for many reasons. First, these books can be an annual record of the gardening activities -- whether vegetables, flowers, shrubbery, bonsai or other. A garden journal is a valued keepsake as well an item that serves a functional purpose.

Gardeners use journals:

• to store photographs
• to plan the spacial layout of the vegetable or flower beds and other gardening elements
• to store receipts, equipment warranties, growing information, magazine clippings, web site printouts, seed packages, etc.
• to keep records of growing times, fertilizers, insecticides, crops, plant specimens used
• to manage to-do lists by season
• for recording reminders, successes, things to avoid
• for a year end summary
• to record a dream list of things to try sometime
• and more.

The content for a garden journal can vary, depending on the needs and interests of the gardener. Those with small balcony gardens or other small garden spaces will have different needs than those who maintain a large garden in the back yard. Those who use a community garden will have different needs yet again.

• Space for Photographs

  Add blocks or mats where the gardener can affix some photographs. Remember to include a small journaling block underneath for captions and comments.

• Graph Paper

  Dedicated gardeners often plot their gardening space using detailed drawings. Graph paper allows them to draw to scale.

• Seed Pockets

  Pockets or spaces for seed packages let the gardener store unused seeds or the empty packages, which usually contain growing information.

• Blank or Lined Pages for Note Taking

  Remember to include plenty of blank pages where the gardener can make notes and keep records.

• Envelopes

  Envelopes in which to store receipts, newspaper clippings, magazine articles. warranties, etc. are useful additions.

• Calendar with Spaces

  A calendar with spaced number blocks is a handy tool. The gardener can mark dates on which to perform certain tasks.

• Seasonal to-do List

  Seasonal to-do lists let the dedicated gardener record and check off each task to perform throughout the four seasons.

• Envelope to Contain a DVD

  Gardeners may like to videotape their gardens or make audio comments. They can burn this to disk and save it in their journals.

Let your imagination run free when it comes to creating trims and embellishments for your garden journals. This picture shows three small gardening tools (rake, shovel and digging tool) that I fashioned from green colored and silver colored artist or decorator wire.

There are various approaches to binding hand made journals, which of course includes garden journals. The following four types of binding are ones that I use personally.

Coptic Stitch Binding

Coptic stitch as a means of book binding has been around for a long time. It involves punching small holes through the books cover and the signatures (i.e groups of pages) and then using a strong thread to perform a "coptic stitch". The picture shows the first coptic bound book that I made. Instructions for doing coptic stitch are at this link.

Wire Binding

This is the binding method I use most often now that I have the Zutter binding tool The garden journal pictures shown elsewhere on this page utilize wire binding. There is a video demonstrating how to use the Zutter Bind-it-all at this link.

Ring Binding

Ring binding is simple to do. You simply punch holes through the covers and pages, then slip binder rings through the holes. You can purchase binder rings at office supply stores and at various craft stores. This link has a picture of a handmade journal bound with rings

Binding with Ribbon, String or Other Fabric

This type of binding involves punching holes through the covers and the signatures or pages. Bind with a fabric such as ribbon, thread, twine, yarn, lace or other. This link goes to a picture of a Hand Made Journal Bound with Twine

There are others approaches to binding. Many books are available on that topic. As mentioned earlier, these three types of the ones I use most often.

Perhaps you want to make your own garden journal but you'd like a little help. The links below should come to the rescue. You'll find a garden journal template, a free, printable garden journal, information about keeping a garden journal and more.