A notebook does not dig a bed, carry water, or turn a soil clod. But among the early tools of a beginning grower, it is possibly the best that you can buy. Most beginning growers attempt to keep too much in mind. We must remember: which bed was watered, when did we water; how deep were we placing the seed; which bed dried out fastest? When did the first stress signs come upon this crop? We can manage that well for a time, but our minds cannot do that well for long.
We use field notebooks to transform those fleeting observations into data points that we can review, ask questions of, and learn from. You do not need great prose, nor a lot of writing, in your notebook. You just need to remember that something took place, and when you can use that later.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to set aside a single page of your notebook for a bed, a container block, or a crop. In your journal for that area, record the date; the weather; your actions; and a few notes about what you observed before you took an action and what you observed after. If you watered, record the condition of the surface (did it look dusty?). If you watered, did the soil at depth still feel cool? How long does the moisture last? If you sowed seed, how long was the interval between rows? How deep did you set the seeds? Did a crust form on the surface? One helpful beginner exercise is to select one small area of the crop. Observe it daily for five days. In the notebook, make only three brief notes each day: what you saw in that area, what you did for that area, and what changed in the area after your action. This practice builds your connection between what you did for your plants and their response, better than any amount of rote memory.
There are many pitfalls for the new recorder. We are most prone to filling up pages in our journal for an area with the intention that we will not fulfill. For instance, I see notes in some growers’ field journals of “water more carefully” or “monitor for weeds,” but no subsequent notes of their observations after that point. When a new grower reviews that notebook after some weeks, he or she gains little from such pages. Another error of note that new growers often make is that we make the records too general. A note that a bed looked “bad” is not very specific. When we go back a week and wonder if we did the right thing, we have little to work from. A better way is to note one specific thing that you observed, in words that you can see and feel: “leaf edges curled by noon,” “surface cracked after watering,” or “seedlings leaned toward one side.” We are trying to find trends. When the same thing occurs three times after you’ve performed a similar action, the notebook helps show us where we should change our practice.
If a growing area is not performing, the field notebook comes in handy since you cannot rush ahead and try another way without stopping. Instead of acting, read the notebook back and see if you note the changing conditions. The soil may be holding moisture longer when the day has not yet come, so you continue watering at a certain time. You have not yet thinned the crop, and the plants are becoming crowded. They may have grown more slowly, with thinner leaves. One of the beds may dry more quickly when the afternoon wind has picked up. It is easy to miss those things in the moment. They become more obvious when you read through your field notes over several days. When you feel stuck, go back a week in the notebook and scan through it looking for the recurring terms or the actions you repeated in the same area. You can often discover trends before they stand out clearly in the mind.
The habit you should establish with the notebook is one in which you can practice briefly each day. For starters, make a fifteen-minute session. Take five minutes just to look at one area of your crop without writing yet. Take five minutes to do one small thing in that area: you may adjust the watering time; you may thin a crowded patch; you may feel the soil deeper than the surface. Take five minutes to write one short sentence noting that you did what you observed in the area of the crop, and what you want to see next when you check back on that area. You can incorporate the habit of writing into your routine with a crop so that the notebook does not take you away from the field but instead becomes a tool for you to improve your thinking about your work.
Over time, you will gain a valuable and growing resource. Entries that may seem mundane are actually very useful in helping you to develop a sense of how your land, weather, soil, and crops respond under real conditions. You can use your records to learn about the soil, plants, water, and other variables. A notebook will not remove mistakes, but it makes mistakes easier to study and less likely to repeat in the same form. For the new grower, such practice is not additional work; it is just a method to make your work better.