How to Set Up a Garden Journal Using a Mini Happy Planner

You put all the work into creating beautiful gardens but that’s where it stops. Wouldn’t it be nice to keep a journal of all the wonderful sights you’ll get to enjoy as you gaze upon your gardens? That’s why you need a garden journal and I’m here to help you set one up in a Mini Happy Planner!

In the post, How to Set Up a Garden Planner Notebook I shared with you a detailed look at how I tracked and managed all of our gardens. It was a great system but I couldn’t really see myself journaling in this ring-bound planner, so I decided to set up a separate notebook as a garden journal. My goal with this was to record blooms and visitors but also to have a place to sketch new garden plan ideas and notes. Our gardens are always evolving so having a record of them is always just nice to have to look back on.

The terms “garden planner”, “garden journal” and “garden notebook” can all mean the same thing -or different things. It depends on how you like to manage your garden information. Up through 2020, I chose to keep my garden planner separate from my garden journal. Meaning, I use my planner to manage my gardens (watering, pruning, planting, etc.) and a separate journal as a garden log or memory keeper.

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Once our gardens start to bloom each Spring the first thing I do is pull out my phone to get some pictures which I know I’ll use in my journal. Plus spending any amount of time in the garden is always a good thing! Then when I need a little self-care or quiet time you’ll likely find me sitting on our side porch just enjoying the moment. I’ve also found this is a great space for gathering inspiration and even doing a little garden journaling.

No matter how you decide to track, manage and journal about your gardens and the time you spend in your garden, remember, it’s completely up to you. Do what works best for you. For me, using the Happy Planner disc-bound system allows me to easily change things up as my gardens grow and expand. Going forward will it be that way? Maybe not. But that is the beauty of creating your own system!

Supplies

• Canon Ivy 2 Mini Photo Printer
• Happy Planner Mini Project Sheets
• Happy Planner Mini Page Protectors
• Mini Happy Notes Just Keep Growing -or- Mini Happy Planner
• Just Keep Growing Mini Accessory Pack
• Happy Planner Stickers Don’t Stop Growing
• Happy Planner Stickers Garden Flowers
• Foxy Fix B6 Wide Travelers Notebook Cover in Ballerina Slipper -or- Moterm Cover for Happy Planner Mini in Pebbled Dusty Rose

To help inspire you I’ll be sharing my own garden journal setup that I’ve put together in a Mini Happy Notes from the Happy Planner.

My Garden Journal Setup

A journal (in the traditional sense) is simply a place where you can record your thoughts, reflections, ideas, experiences and observations. I’ve used a Mini Happy Notes because I didn’t need a calendar for this set up and it offered me the most flexibility.

As I do with all my projects, I created a Happy Planner Project Sheet detailing the purpose of this setup, what I wanted in the garden journal and action steps.

Adding Photos to Your Garden Journal

I love my Canon Ivy Mini Photo Printer!! It’s the perfect size to put in your planner bag to take with you anywhere. The best part is the photo paper is also a sticker -no tape needed to add a photo to your garden journal!

I started this garden journal in the Spring of 2020 and I paired it with my Happy Planner “Just Bloom” Detailed Florals garden planner (which I haven’t shared yet…but will be soon). I really enjoyed this journal because it allowed me to go back to past garden info and make a quick entry about a particular bloom or visitor.

This flexibility can be really helpful from year to year, especially when you change out your gardens and can’t remember what was planted where. I really do love looking back at my past garden blooms and visitors and reflecting on that moment. From time to time, even now, I will still pull out this journal and record a moment I want to remember.

I’m trying hard to not sound redundant but, that’s the beauty of using the disc-bound system. You can add to it whenever you want and insert a page or pages where ever you want it. For now, let’s take a look inside my garden journal setup.

Seasonal Blooms Tab

The first tab in my garden journal is for seasonal blooms that I want to record. Taking some time to relax on the side porch and journal about the blooms and visitors our gardens get is precious self-care time. I really look forward to that time too. When I make an entry in my garden journal I’ll use a mixture of just writing, scrapbooking, mixed media, paint and more. But almost always I use a photo from my Canon Ivy mini printer.

Since this is a Happy Notes it doesn’t come with a cover page or name page. For this notebook I’m okay with that because the tab is just too pretty to cover up. To mirror that beauty on the inside cover, I added a clear pocket and flower sticker that matched the tab flowers.

Garden Visitors Tab

In this section I will journal about all the fun garden visitors we get. The regular visitors to our gardens are the robins which we’ve had the honor to see many a clutch born and “fly the coop”; we’ve seen chipmunks, ducks, a variety of frogs, butterflies, dragonflies, grasshoppers, bees -you name it! Even fox, deer, rabbits and once we saw a coyote run through our yard. So there is no shortage of garden visitors to journal about, that’s for sure!

This tab has beautiful iris flowers on it and the quote reads, “let go and grow”. Just for fun I added a little butterfly sticker at the top.

I have found as I’ve journaled that many times the “seasonal blooms” and “garden visitors” tab will overlap because well, visitors need flowers and water to survive.

In My Garden Tab

This last tab I haven’t quite used too much. It was meant for just pure logging of garden information. Whether it’s about what I see, what I smell, the weather….the goal in this section was to just write.

So in essence it was meant to me a rapid log of sorts.

This tab, while pretty, was just a little to plain for me. The quote reads, “plant dreams, pull weeds, & grow a happy life”. I added a little butterfly sticker to the tab and just in front of the tab I added a printed vellum with pretty yellow flowers and bee theme to it.

Garden Journal Accessories

• Pocket decor: While it isn’t necessary to have this, I just love to open my cover and have cute pocket decor.
• Charms: Since I’m using a travelers notebook cover it’s super easy to add some decorative charms to the strings. For my garden journal I choose some adorable garden themed charms that include a dragonfly, felt flowers, flower and leaf beads and a tiny gold birdcage with a pearl inside.
• Clear pocket: I added a clear pocket sticker to the front cover of the Mini Happy Planner Notes to hold scraps of paper, journal photos or anything else that I wanted to keep handy.
• Lace vellum divider: I used some Planner Society notepaper with a cute house design to adhere to a lace doily punched edge on vellum for no other reason that it was a cute addition.
• Folder: I’ve also included a folder to hold stickers, journaling cards or anything else I might need.

Add Journal Books

While it isn’t necessary, I did want to have a cover for my Mini Happy Notes which was why I put it into a B6 wide travelers notebook. By doing this it gives me extra strings to add in two additional B6 journal inserts. I used just plain B6 journal books and then decorated both the front and back of each one with paper from The Planner Society kits.

1. Garden Projects and Ideas: While this setup is primarily for journaling having this extra book allows me the space to record future garden projects, ideas and sketch out plans.
2. Notes: In this book I can essentially do a brain dump or jot down notes of any kind.

I started working in this garden journal setup in August 2020 and I still pull it out from time to time to use. Now that I’ve got a good number of entries in the journal I have found there are some things I’d change; but that is the beauty of using a disc-bound system, it makes it so easy to make any changes I want and still have it work for me and my needs.

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