How my southern granny keeps her gardening records

If you're anything like my granny, you're a record keeping junkie. She keeps notes on everything (I really mean everything) from her blood pressure readings to which medications she has taken and at what time.  Her medium of choice?  Those wall calendars with the days divided up into squares.  She used to get them from my papa's company (he was an insurance salesman back when they actually went door to door) and after that she just used whichever ones she could find for cheap at the dollar store or elsewhere.  People know she's a bit of an addict so she gets a slew of them at the start of the year from anyone and everyone (including her doctors, church friends and the postal carrier). 

One of the most prominent calendars is the one right beside the front door.  It records anything and everything to do with her garden.  My granny has had a garden for as long as I can remember.  I truly think that's what allows her to survive on an extremely limited fixed income.  It's such a part of her daily routine it's not even given much thought.  A firm believer in the early to bed, early to rise philosophy, she is up before the dawn most days and after breakfast she'll go out on the porch and check the rain gauge so see if any rain occurred overnight.  That measurement, if any, gets noted in the little box on the calendar by her door.  After that she'll go out and hoe her garden (she's a master with her hoe I tell you, I've never seen one wielded with such one-handed precision) and do any weeding (she uses her hoe to chop up and bury any weeds) or harvesting that's required.  This calendar also keeps track of what's planted and when.  If watering is needed (as indicated by the amount of rain in the rain gauge) the garden will get water in the evenings.  It seems like such an obvious sort of thing this keeping track of your gardening habits, but I would never have thought of it.  Being the girlie girl that I am, I'd have thought I needed some sort of fancy  garden log or a journal of some kind in which I record all the detailed goings on in my award winning (sarcasm here) veggie plot (that doesn't mean I don't still want one) - but nope, being the frugal southern lady that she is, granny just does the sensible thing and goes with a conveniently placed wall calendar hung by the door.  She even strings a pen up on some twine and hangs that from the same nail as the calendar.  One smart cookie if you ask me!

So how about you gardeners out there, how do you keep track of all the vital information needed for your gardens?  I'd love to hear your tips n tricks.


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