Planning for next year garden - #BUJO

The cute cover of my bullet journal for 2020 inspired by Shayda Campbell beautiful designs

 
Instead of considering winter a sad season I actually appreciate the downtime. No more rushing to the front and backyard to check plants, water them if needed, weed, harvest, take care of pests, reseed. It is what makes the prolific growing season rather exciting, I know. But it can be tiring if not graced with a lovely season of cozy tea cups and blanket on my lap, rejoicing in the results of the past year and dreaming of the next season.

This year somehow I stumbled upon doodling and painting and drawing and we know how the internet is: one thing leads to another and I discovered bullet journaling. I know it existed, I never thought of myself a fan of it. But I guess it is because I had never seen it as an activity for marrying both planning AND creativity together. Not only thinking about the design of the bullet journal we want to make, but actually executing the drawings and doodles that will make up for the look and feel of the journal. Basically designing the experience I want to live this year in my gardening.

With 2020 approaching I decided that all my computer tools + piles of stray paper were becoming actually more complicated than keeping a journal. I decided to give it a try and I am excited to see how different the next year will be. More organized? Will it be all fun but actually useless? Only time will tell, but hey, I looove me some experimenting.

The Setup
 
The first thing about all this was: what kind of journal would I have? I knew I wanted something I could bring with me in my garden. I knew it must not be bothersome, so no big, bulky or too finicky. Ideally I wanted them dotted to make it easier to draw, but no lines.

I ended up finding slim tall dotted refills from Wanderings. This is not an A5, this is much thinner. I so recommend them! I had never used this size of notebook but I am very much sold. The quality and the convenience are all I needed to make this a pleasant experience. In the picture you can see how it is small. I have small hands! The notebook is officially 8.25 x 4.25 Inch (21cm x 11cm) in dimensions.

Shayda Campbell, an inspiring creator I started following on social media, had everything for me: she is greatly inspired by florals and botanicals, which is a marvelous theme for my journal. I also love how her art is simple, never overloading on colors. With that I had now a theme and a lovely notebook, so I started with the cover, which is a freestyle follow-along of one of her drawings. Then, it was time to make it real!

The Calendar and the Goals

  

One of the main points of bullet journalling is keeping track of time and goals, so I decided to start with that.

I'll admit that drawing the actual calendar is rather boring, but adding florals and colors in the end are what makes it fun as a process. The fact that we pay attention to the dates while noting them also helps to start getting acquainted with next year. I was surprised to see the placement of the holidays!

I decided to draw the calendar on the cover to save space and to be able to make use of the first page right away. These journals are thin on width and also thin on number of pages, so saving space is key here. Again, all part of the convenience aspect.

I also decided to use the first page to have all my projects at a glance. Projects are what I call when I experiment, not really knowing what is going to come out of it. They are not my goals, they are experiences. It will help me to remember what I tried each year and it will also show me other interesting data, such as my tendency to over commit. As of today I already have 7 projects going on, ranging from my Early Food for Pollinators (that is my crocus and other early flower garden) to my first attempt to make a hybrid approach between pot and raised bed, with my cedar barrels. On a side note, moving forward I decided to just write in black ink because I found writing in colors was making the page too distracting.

Now, for the goals instead. They are different from the projects in that they actually state something I can measure to see if it was attained. They are mostly one-liners, but they are enough to make sense for me. The actual details are something that is important not to commit in the beginning, it is something I have the freedom to work on throughout the year. As an example, one of my goals is to have enough basil to can some pesto this year. I never had the pleasure to can my own basil and by September they can no longer thrive in my cold climate. That means I have from late May to early September to make the magic happen. I will try at least 20 mature plants but I can plant more if needed during the season. I will observe and course-correct. But if my goal I just put "Plant 20 basil plants" it might not be something that actually fulfill my goals. "Plant 100 basil plants" also might just be too much. And in the end of the day, the goal is the pesto, not the amount of plants.

Plans and Logs

Every year I buy seeds and plants and starters (such as onions, potatoes or garlic). But I realized I never really tracked them in any fashion and I decided to start to see if I can gain some insight from that data. In a very simple page (above) I just list what I need and from where I am getting it. Like this I know the name of the variety and the store I am getting it from.

I also decided to get more organized on what I plant too much (aka waste) and what I do not seem to plant enough. And why not, a little quote from Lavoisier to remember nature's essence!

Garden Layout

Every year I have a pile of paper in which I draw sketches and layouts for my planters, pots and my raised beds. I challenged myself to try and do something cute and extremely useful. I put here the layout my garden for spring and fall. What I like the most about this exercise is the ability to start thinking about the combinations of plants, what goes in the ground first, what follows it, what is the sunnier spots, what is in shadier areas.

My spring layout for 2020

There are some good learnings about the bullet journalling in this as well (already). The first one being: write details in pencil. Since most of those layouts are yet to be implemented not before April 2020, I might change my mind or discover something and need to erase the disposition of some of my plants. Others, however, are on a hard commitment, such as the garlic.

The second thing I learned is about myself. I had prepared this layout of raised beds and pots but I ended up adding more raised beds (one of my pot-raised hybrid bed approach) later and for the specific beds placement I had them set in ink. So there you go. Leaving a page or two between the layouts might be the 2021 solution.

That is right, I already have an idea of my fall planting

  

 One final learning was that adding the colors and doodles helped me to identify right away which season I had open. A very handy reminder!

I have other layouts yet to be added, such as my public parks raised beds (I volunteer in our community garden in parks in my town) and some flower bed / mixed border I have by my main door.

The pots and bags I have, I move them around throughout the season, so I do not exactly workout a layout. But I figured knowing what they would be would be helpful to know which soil I can reuse and when I am running out of pots and bags! I know I can overplant, so this is crucial. Especially because I plant many crops of extreme importance to my household such as potatoes, peppers and potatoes in grow bags.

The second interesting thing I did was a space just to know where I planted my garlic. I know the beds and they have markers with the name of the variety, but that is not enough in case the season gets harsh. I named them as per rows! Last year I was surprised that a whole row did not sprout and to this day, with a faded marker I never know which garlic that was for sure.



Monthly Planners

Knowing what to do every month is extremely useful, is it not? I already prepared the monthly logs for January and February as those months are really slow for me. Other than taking care of what I grow inside under grow lights (usually scallions and baby greens), I devote myself to microgreens, sprouts and eating my lovely preserved goods. And, of course dream big time of next season!

Final Thoughts

In the end a bullet journal leaves a lot of room for ongoing improvements in its own configurations during the year. I do not know what else I will add and how my logs will actually go. I have a feeling I will need more space for my monthly usage, but all that is yet to be discovered. A lot of folks in social media seem to use those types of journal and I learned from them: all configure it for your own, personal needs. That is the key element I guess.

Two things are for certain: first, bullet journal has the potential to become my go-to tool for preparing for next season; second, bullet journal is just one of the many things I need in place to prepare for next season, but such a fun one! And I it got me all excited already!

Happy new year and best gardening wishes!