How to Grow Your Best Garden in 2024

As always, I am planning to grow my best garden ever next year, in 2024!  Your best garden will look different than mine, but they will both produce abundantly with the help of one simple action — create a well thought out plan and then follow through. Take notes on what worked well and what did not. Keep those notes organized so that you can refer back to them and build on what you have already learned. I created this beautiful bound “Homestead Garden Journal and Planner”  to make the planning and record keeping more fun. [Hint: A more economical DIY version of the planner is also available as a digital download on Etsy.]

Keeping on top of all my garden chores while raising a large family has been a challenge. I have tried several garden planners over my 15 years of gardening, but I usually ended up frustrated with them and myself. I finally decided to make my own.  I have been testing and tweaking versions of my garden planner for two years. I can honestly say that it has been amazingly helpful.  As the spring rush ramped up into the summer frenzy of growing, weeding, and preserving, I (for the most part) was able to follow the plan that I had calmly written out before things went crazy.  

5 Ways that my Homestead Garden Journal and Planner has helped me and (I hope) will help YOU have your best garden ever in 2024:

1. The Magic of Color

One of my problems is that I get bored and tired of keeping records, especially if it’s just blah black and white pages and images. I filled the Homestead Garden Journal and Planner with beautiful colorful images to make it a joy to use and also to keep for future reference. 

2. Workbook Style

The Homestead Garden Journal and Planner is organized workbook style.  I often wish that I had a coach to remind me to create my seed planting schedule or to write down everything that I harvested this week.  The planner does that by including seasonal and monthly “worksheets” around the time when (according to me) they should be completed.  Each month includes a checklist of tasks, a place to record monthly goals, a harvest log, and a preserving journal. 

3. Record of Successes and Failures

I also love having a place to record what I planned to do that week and what I actually did do in the garden each day. I do that by dividing each week day into two columns: my planned tasks listed on the far left side and how the day actually went on the right side. 

4. Easy Reference Guide

Reference pages throughout the book allow me to quickly double check details such as recommended spacing or planting depths without having to look it up online. 

5. Annual Summary Information

At the end of the garden season there are worksheets to create a summary of ALL that you harvested (aggregate of all the monthly harvest logs) and ALL that you preserved. Seeing all those pounds of food harvested and quarts that you have preserved added up is a wonderful pat on the back! The annual summaries also serve as an easy reference point to compare from year to year.

If you have ideas for improving the Homestead Garden Journal and Planner I would love to hear from you. The 2024 version will be in the works soon and I hope to make it even better than this year’s.

A word about Growing Zones and planting times

In case you’re wondering about my growing zone and how this planner fits in with that. Here’s my explanation about that from the book:

I have found garden planning according to USDA Planting Zone charts extremely capricious. Suggested planting times occasionally work well, but usually need to be adjusted for the unique climate of my own state, region, and even neighborhood! Elevation, length of growing season, and microclimates cannot be accurately represented by the broad categories of the 9 planting zones.

Keeping the disclaimer above in mind, I have not provided any specific planting dates, but rather broad monthly check-lists. I live in planting zone 7a in Maryland. The monthly check-lists presented in this Homestead Garden Planner and Journal are best suited to those growing in USDA hardiness zones 6, 7, and 8.

I strongly recommend visiting/calling/googling your state’s agricultural extension agency website and/or office. They will be able to provide you with the most accurate planting dates for your state and region. With a few years of keeping records, such as this “Homestead Garden Journal and Planner”, you will become an expert on which planting dates work best for your homestead garden.

The “Pick Your Own” website has a complete list of state and county agricultural extension offices. It can be found at: https://pickyourown.org/countyextensionagentoffices.htm