Extremely useful garden planner organiser

Using a garden planner organiser is not every bodies cup of tea. This Garden Planner Organiser by Sunny Jean, is the one I am going use for my 2023/2024 year. This blog is a review of the planner and how I plan to use it.

Table of Contents

What garden planner organiser have I used?

For 2022/2023 gardening year I used the lovely garden planner by Wrendale. This is a very nice looking garden planner but it requires a lot of writing and then looking back through pages to see what has been done and what is still outstanding. It has lovely pictures and even some seasonal recipes. It is laid out just like a diary. I found I would write in the allotted sections even writing in future sections as a reminder to do that job. Tracking new seasonal plants and all my seeds was a problem with a day diary layout only.

I do not like fussy planners and journals that require me to write in it every day. I won’t be doing any of that with the Garden Planner Organiser by Sunny Jean.

Why bother writing up a garden planner organiser?

It is simple and straight forward to use. When the weather is still bad, I can jot down things that I would like to do in the monthly To Do list. I can also prepare the year by drawing area’s of my garden out on graph paper.

Walking around my garden, I see lots of things I need to do. My head gets full of plans and ideas, which all get forgotten if I don’t make notes. I used to write on pieces of paper or post it notes. These were often lost or forgotten. A garden planner, can help keep all plans and ideas and to do’s in one place.
When the new season begins and the plants come up, I note them in my garden drawings. Sadly, not all my plants survive the snow and cold of Winter. It gives me an instant visual record of what is in what space.
I write in pencil, this allows me to change my ideas. I don’t write a huge amount of detail as things always change when you start a task.
Keeping records it nice, you can look back each year and compare, keep track on improvements and newly planted crops and flowers.
Knowing when the wind came last year or when the first frost arrived allows you to plan a little to that date. However the event may or may not arrive on the same day.

Is drawing out a garden plan necessary?

In this Garden Planner Organiser by Sunny Jean, there are 4 sheets of graph paper. I have drawn out sections of the garden, so I have a “visual” record of what plants or veg I have.
I once again used pencil but have used pencil crayons to note where the sunlight is, where it is wet etc. Look at my blog regarding light and water maps.
Marking the areas where I have plants flowering in the first quarter, second quarter etc using colour coding allows me to put plants in places so I have a nice looking garden throughout the seasons.

What I like about the Garden Planner Organiser by Sunny Jean.

It has graph paper for garden plans.
The seed catalogue is basic but great as it is in the front of the book and not pages throughout.
The plant and vegetable trackers are handy for new pants, it is nice to record height and colour as this information allows me to plant this plant in the correct place.
It is divided into 4 x 3 month sections, I am planning to use that as my seasonal changes.
There are no dated pages so I started using it in the correct yearly week. I usually go from Autumn to Autumn as I don’t do a lot in the garden during the very cold months.
At the end of each 4 week section there is a simple weather chart. I will be using that as it is quick and easy. I like to record frosts, winds, and of course weeks of rain.
The weekly pages just offer diary type space. I will only use that space if I need to record or remember something specific like a delivery date. In general I use the monthly To Do list to plan.
This is a planner organiser, which is laid out differently to a diary type planner.

What do you record in your garden planner organiser?

My seed packets often get the better of me. I have seeds from last year, seeds which I got free with a magazine, seeds which I collected and seeds which I have bought for the coming year. Having a written log to keep track must be a help. I am going to be trying this out this year as there is a seed log in my new planner. I will update next year.
The weather is one of those things that you have no control over. In Lancashire UK, where I live we have lots of rain and frosts. Autumn is often full of strong winds. All this adverse weather can cause chaos in my garden. I have always kept a note of the extreme weather days and it has been a useful as I cover a lot of my new plants over the Winter.
The main reason for having a garden planner is to remember what you need to do in your garden. I like to take a pencil and my planner with me when I have a stroll around. I make notes as I go.