Keeping a house plant journal helps you to track the growth, health, and overall
well-being of indoor plants.
A journal can serve as a
reference guide, helping you understand your plants' specific
needs and preferences. Plant journaling can help you identify patterns, troubleshoot issues, and ultimately create a thriving green oasis in your home.
Why keep a houseplant journal?
A plant journal helps you to:
- track plant growth and progress. You can record important
milestones such as new leaves, flowers, or successful propagation
attempts in your journal. Imagine the joy of looking back at these records and
witnessing the transformation of your plants over time.
- monitor plant health: a houseplant journal helps you track the health of
indoor greenery. You can use your journal to record any signs of pests,
diseases, or nutrient deficiencies you observe in your plants.
- keep track of watering and fertilizer schedule: a plant journal helps to provide a consistent and
balanced diet of water and nutrients to your indoor plants.
- provides space for experimentation and learning: you can also use your house plant journal as a platform for
experimentation and learning. Experiment with various care techniques,
such as adjusting light exposure, humidity levels, or potting mix
compositions, and document the results for future reference.
How to set up your houseplant journal?
One possibility is to set up your plant journal in a dotted notebook, using a bullet journal method (browse our selection of notebooks
here). You would divide your notebook into various sections and record the page numbers in the index, usually located at the front of the notebook. You can read more about the bujo method
here. Below are some ideas for spreads and page set-ups.
- plant profile: dedicate a page to each of your houseplants, including all relevant general information regarding the plant, for example, plant name, scientific name, where and when acquired, possible toxicity to humans or pets, etc. The plant profile page could also include general instructions on how to take care of this plant, its light/humidity/water/potting mix preferences, etc. It would also be useful to record how this plant propagates (by stem cuttings, by division, or seeds?), and common issues with possible solutions.
- monthly and seasonal houseplant tasks planner layouts allow you to plan your houseplant tasks by month and season, and adjust your monthly/weekly watering and fertilising schedules by season. A yearly overview by months is useful for planning seasonal tasks such as repotting and propagation.
- a houseplant wishlist helps you to keep track of and plan your future houseplant purchases.
- a plant care & supplies shopping list is useful for keeping track of various supplies needed to take care of your plants.
- watering tracker by plant is useful when you have many plants with different watering needs and schedules.
- fertilizer tracker helps to give your plants a consistent and balanced amount of nutrients.
- propagation tracker helps to keep track of the various propagation attempts and their success rate.
- repotting tracker helps to keep track of repottings and pot sizes by plants.
- pests and diseases log helps to monitor your plants' health. In the tracker you can record the date, problem (disease, pest), success of various treatments.
Don't forget to have fun with your journal! Depending on your preferences and skills, you can illustrate your journal, or decorate your journal with botanical ephemera, washi tapes and stickers :) See our selection of decorative tapes and stickers
here.
Do you keep a houseplant journal?
Until next time,
Marianne
