Here are pictures of flower beds in Mason City in the parks, that I helped design. They are looking good. Ideas all ready for next year. Now I need to write them down in a gardening journal.

               I spent some time in Mason City yesterday checking out the flower beds that were planted with our plants.  I designed a couple of them, and they look nice.  Thankful for that.  I haven't been to see them since we planted in early June.  Here are some of the pictures.  I have ideas for different plants for next year, and knowing me I better write that down.  That is what I am going to suggest to you making a garden journal. 
Here is the website I took the information from:  http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Gardening-Journal
Make a Gardening Journal
      Decide what purpose you want your gardening journal to fulfill. This could be a more casual record of your activity or a repository of essential information. •If you are a more casual gardener who merely wants to look back and see what you've done, a simple diary will suffice. If you are a more serious gardener, especially someone hoping to use or sell produce from your garden, keeping a gardening journal will be an essential part of planning your future activity.
      Choose a journal format that suits your purpose. •For a simple journal, use a notebook or diary, or even graph paper if you just want to record planting dates. For a more serious journal, choose a large binder to which you can add paper and pouches for seeds. Electronic formats are also an option. For a diary-like journal on a computer, use a word processing program and create a new page or file for each entry. For a journal with measurements or statistics, use a data organization program like Microsoft Excel. There are also apps available for smartphones, such as Garden Pro and Master Gardener.
     Divide your garden journal into sections. These may be chronological, topical, or practical. •You may choose to have a section for each growing season, or to divide your journal into plant types. Additionally, you might have different sections for seed notes, weather notes, and financial data. In all cases, you can use each section either as a diary or as a folder for information.
     Leave space in your new sections for non-text items such as seed samples, diagrams and pictures of your garden. Cover your gardening journal with a book cover or plastic lamination so that it can safely get wet and dirty. You will want to be able to bring your journal into your garden.
       Begin entering information, such as description of a day's work or planting dates into the appropriate sections of the garden journal. Leave space after each entry so that you can come back later and add notes or edit what you have written. Let your gardening journal evolve as the growing season goes on, adding new sections, including a second volume, inserting additional paper.  Hope this gives you some ideas for what to do with a gardening journal.  I will see what I get written in mine.  Till next time, this is Becky Litterer from Becky's Greenhouse, Dougherty Iowa