Let your computer help your garden grow

Prepare for spring with an organized garden journal

By Rehana Begg

The weather might not be ready for planting, but you can still get a head start on planning the garden. Whether you’re a novice or a professional, you know that a beautiful garden takes thought and preparation. With a little imagination, you can collect all of your gardening information in one place before spring planting starts.

Organize and plan for spring

Gardening enthusiast Donna Houlihan says keeping a gardening calendar is a great way to ensure you don’t continue planting the same crop of vegetables in the same spot year after year. Certain vegetables need to be rotated each season to ensure the soil’s nutrients are not depleted. A calendar will also be handy in seasons to come when doing your planning.

“As soon as the snow starts and the gardening books start coming in, it’s time for plotting and planning,” says the self-proclaimed gardening junkie. She keeps a photo diary of her 30-year-old “work-in-progress” garden in Pickering, Ont., cataloguing inspiration and ideas gleaned from a myriad of gardening magazines, gardening shows and designs garnered on trips to France and the Caribbean.

Create a catalogue of monthly chores

Charting a gardening to-do list can help you prioritize and formulate a ground plan to shape your garden long before the spring thaws the earth. While planting season varies across Canada, an organized garden journal allows you the time to think through where to plant your annuals and vegetables.

Microsoft Home Magazine’s simple gardening planner allows you to keep a month-by-month checklist on your computer or printed out and kept in a notebook.

Keep a seasonal to-do list

According to avid gardener and freelance gardening writer Mary Lynn O’Shea of Oakville, Ont., typical early spring calendar entries may include the following chores, depending on the zone you live in:

• Clean up beds and borders; cut down any remaining foliage from last year. Remove leaves and pull back winter mulches.
• Check forced bulbs and bring out of the cold storage if tips have sprouted 2” or more.
• Pull weeds while they are highly visible. (They tend to come up first.)
• Prune roses.
• Divide perennials as needed. (Both O’Shea and Houlihan divide and share perennials with friends to help keep their gardening budgets in check.)
• Plant shrubs, trees, perennials and spring bulbs as soon as the ground is workable (not too wet).

If the air is still nippy, plan some gardening activities indoors:

• Clean and sharpen garden tools, and oil wooden handles with linseed oil.
• Thoroughly clean planting containers with soapy water and bleach.

Photograph your garden for reference

The way to achieve that unique garden look, says O’Shea, “is to spend time studying your garden because it needs to have a basic structure.” It takes knowing your garden to forecast where a tree should be planted or whether a particular variety of flower will thrive in a low-light area.

Houlihan relies on her gardening organizer to look at what worked the last year and what didn’t. She uses a technique called sequencing to capture her garden on film before planning and assessing what she would like to address each spring.

“Stand yourself in a fixed position when taking your first photograph of your garden,” she explains. “Then do a quarter turn and take the next shot. [Continue turning and photographing] until you get the full vista.”

Study your gardening album

June Streadwick, co-ordinator for Master Gardeners of Niagara, says she has taken photos of her garden in “the same spot in each season. This way you can see seasonal [compositions] such as the Dogwoods’ beautiful red stems for winter interest and enjoy the shrub’s pretty, variegated green-and-white leaves in spring.”

Use your camera and computer to create a garden plan; scan photos of last year’s garden into our handy gardening photo album.

Once you have a clear picture of your garden, pay close attention to your colour scheme. The photos will help you to decide whether you’re going to move some junipers, put in more perennials or fit an arbour. You should also note how much sun exposure, water and fertilizer your plants will need for future reference.