Over the years, I have reviewed many garden journals. Some are more useful than others. What I particularly like about this journal is its creativity.
The Montenegro sisters draw borders on each set of pages—which itself is visually inspiring—but then journal then goes on to prompt written suggestions, as well as suggestions for painting, drawing or sketching as well.
I especially liked suggestions that reminded the gardener to sit and observe the garden over the course of a long summer day (who would think to do that in the busy-ness of summer?) or to sketch the progress of a vine. The invitation to contemplation, which is so often lost when keeping a garden journal, is brilliant.
The top photo shows how each page in this journal–as well as the one that I reviewed Friday –have that faint dotted grid that makes it a “bullet journal. ”
The page below shows just one of the creative prompts–this one from a week in January– showing different leaf types and asking the gardener which type he or she planned to add in the coming year.
That’s a different sort of concept from just thinking about “adding new plants.” I liked this a lot, and there’s a lot of this throughout the journal.
A Year in the Garden: A Guided Journal
By Nina Montenegro and Sonya Montenegro
Gardendaze 