Journaling and ways to track what to do in the garden

The more I do n the garden and on the property, the more I see the need to keep notes.  After the winter I lost some plants but I;m not exactly sure which ones.  Although I kept really good notes on all the plants I bought, and I drew a general map of where I put plants, I didn't keep that map up and now I;m not sure where things are at.  So I thought I would write about journaling and record keeping.

When I buy a new plant I add it into a word document which is my database of plants.  I use the tables function of Word, which allows you to sort alphabetically which is really all I need.  I add a small picture, usually taken from the internet.  I add where I bought the plant from and a general description of the plant and its care requirements.  I refer back to this document almost weekly and its grown to over 70 ages now.

I have also recently started using One Note from Microsoft (it comes with Office suite).  I knew about it for years, but didn't realize the power of it until now.  It literally is a way to organize ALL those things you find on the internet and save onto folders and then forget where where you put them so you end up doing the internet search again.  The best way I have used it so far is that I've created a monthly "what to do in the garden" folder.  I've searched the net for various articles on what to do in the pacific northwest each month and found about 5 groups that are reliable and respected.  I downloaded their recommendations as files and them looked at them all and created my own "to-do" list in OneNote.  Then I also added a page which compiles what I in fact actually did do and what the date was I did it.   So when I work outside and come in at night I just jot down on hat page what important things I did... first time the grass is mowed, when I fertilize, planting of various plants, etc...

I have other journals also, but none have really caught on yet.  I have the moleskin garden journal which I love as it looks beautiful.  But its almost too beautiful.  And it requires me to hand write everything or print and cut and past things.  I downloaded a few online journals, and even bought one.  But they haven't impressed me with the depth I would like.  although I think I may go back to them and use their formatting to help me create the OneNote notebook organization.

I have bought the Mother Earth vegetable garden planner.  It works well and was a wonderful tool to use in the winter when I was planning my vege garden.  However, reality set in and I didn't really implement the plan I made as I didn't have the veges at the right times.  So I ended up planting what I had (bought in stores or from greenhouse seedlings) in the best locations available at the time.  I also haven't had the time to fill all my container beds with soil yet.  Its all a slow process I've come to understand.

Resources:
How to keep a Vegetable Garden Journal
Create a Gardening Journal with Microsoft OneNote