Inventory of Garden

I would like to inventory our garden. We live in Abaco, Bahamas, and have an additional lot adjoining our house. Our gardens are divided by winding rock lined paths. I want to have a record of what is planted where.

Has anyone got a system for plant/tree record keeping?

Hope it's OK if I join in the Florida group...it seems the best fit for our home in the islands. I'm new to this site...and it's the only one I have ever participated in.

Thanks for any help,
Kitty

Kitty: I use Microsoft Works Database, but there are others. I just label genus, species, common name, and where I got them.

Delisa

Good luck, you are about to find out you have a lot more plants than you thought you did!

Hi,
Welcome to the forum. I must say I am lazy and don't keep records of anything except in my head and a few labels on the plants. If someone asks, I know if I have it but not necessary how many as I have alot of potted plants awaiting final placement and have multiples of some and I'm usually propagating something.
Jan...

Good Morning Kitty, Welcome to Dave's Garden and to the Florida Forums. We are glad to have ya here.

Although I only joined Dave's in August 2003, I have been told this site was started as a garden journal and has since grown into what you see here today.

So there is a place here to do a journal. I have been telling myself to sit down and start one up for myself. A couple weeks back I went out and took pictures of all my flowerbeds in the entire yard, front and back. I had every intention of going through my pictures, naming and dating all the plants that way. For me, the task all of a sudden became overwhelming.

But if you have the desire and an attention span bigger than mine, you might want to use this site for your journal or diary. Dave has it all set up, so you just follow the paths he has laid out. The biggest plus to this as far as I am concerned is the data storage. No matter what happens to your own computer hard and software at your house, the data is always stored over here at Daves.

You can find the journal and diary options by clicking on the "Journals" tab on the top of this page.

Molly
:^)))

Welcome Kitty! I'm so glad you decided to join the Florida Forum. We are now the first state forum to go "international". LOL
Pati

LOL Pati, oh you are so sharp. I missed that insight. Are you sure someone from Mexico didn't borderhop to Texas? LOL

Kitty we are glad to have you, Zone 11, I can't imagine. Well I would probably have to be machetied out every six weeks.
When I got my land surveyed I copied that plot and enlarged it.
I drew different colored lines for each sprinkler 'zone'. I plan to catalog (#) the plants in each 'zone' and put the corresponding
plant number on my garden map.
Be sure and take lots of pictures and post them right here in the Florida forum.
We're glad to have you.
sidney

THANKS for all your welcomes...and for the good ideas. I hope I will DO something, but right now I'm in the thinking, gathering info stage...and having too much fun digging and transplanting, to stop and make lists.
Kitty

That's the state I've been in for the last nine years.
;)

welcome kitty! you will find this florida forum so informative and so much fun. my stuff is in notes and books all over the house-so im no help to you so far. LOL debi

Welcome, Kitty. I hope you will find, as I have, the enjoyment of sharing fun times, plants, and information with the folks in this forum!

A new feature was just added to the DG Plant Files pages. You can click on a link at the bottom of the Plant Files page and transfer the info for that plant to your Journal. I also hope to inventory all my plant species, and this feature should make it much easier to do that rather than having to manually enter info (and often forgetting the latin names within a matter of seconds and having to jump back and forth between screens in order to get it right!) Now I just have to figure out how to set up an "Inventory" journal so I can make the links.

I have also thought of doing what Sugarweed suggests of gridding a copy of my land survey and indicating where I plant things, but that will probably be something for the future when (and if) I ever find the time and when things are more established. Currently, I stick things in the ground and then sometimes move them two or three times to find the best location for them. The plants walk around my yard with the alacrity and mobility of Burnam Wood (I'm just showing off -- with a reference to trivia in Shakespeare's "Macbeth").

Jeremy

Thanks Jeremy for the helpful hint -- I will definitely use that feature!! I'm glad to know that you move things around...it makes me nervous to disturb something that is doing well. However, I'm gaining courage.

Saturday I cut back and divided 57 Walking Iris...which produced about 30 more, that I moved to another bed--and shared with my neighbor, who now has two beds of the lovely Iris too!

Today I cut back, to root in water, and divided Mexican Blue Bells (I think that's the name) After three hours of that, the heat was oppressive, and the Sea called...so my husband and I went swimming, and the work will begin tomorrow a couple of hours earlier!!

What fun this site is!
Kitty

Hello, greenink. I am also relatively new at Dave's, but people are helpful, encouraging, and entertaining here. I enjoy browsing and reading various threads. I would love to have a nearby sea to cool off, but I am too central for a quick dip on either coast. I like the description of your winding rock lined paths. You'll have to post pictures of them, so we can stroll along.

Jeremy--The information on transferring the information from the plant files to the journal is helpful. It'll probably still take me a while to figure it out. I like the Macbeth reference. (I am an English teacher.)

Sidney--I like the mapping idea. I've been in my yard for nine years, but sad to say, it's still a lot of lawn.

MollyMc--good point of Dave's being a permanent record. When my daughter heads back to college, I'll be computer-less. I'll still have my work computer. I'll have to go in earlier and stay later to keep browsing threads.

Nancy

jeremy, thanks for letting us know about that little trick. i ,too, find myself forgetting how to spell those names within a nanosecond. debi

Welcome, Kitty! :)

I echo all the comments above!

As far as record keeping, I am really trying, but it is an on-going process, and the more plants I acquire, the more difficult it becomes for me.

This would have been an excellent time to try and figure it all out, since the heat was too much for me today to plant all of my goodies I acquired the other day, but I got confused, and ended up doing a jigsaw puzzle! LOL

Again, welcome to our Florida Forum....

I keep a record of all my species but it is just an oldfashioned notebook with sections for different plant families.

I can't tell you how many times I have been lucky that I did write things down- I can remember the name of any character actor on the planet but if it pertains to my own life it is in one ear and out the other!

Hi and Welcome...

I would do a plot, but I keep moving things trying to figure out where everyone will be happy. I've started a notebook journal. As soon as I decide what format I want to use, it will go on my computer.

Right now, things lives there theys lives....

Hey Hap....I saw on another post you were getting right grumpy about the impending storm. LOL Look where Kitty lives. It's right over her house.
Pati

Go figure, I'm a professional editor with thousands of dollars' worth of computer equipment at my disposal, plus a handy-dandy membership here. My resources are nearly limitless. (We could also use such journaling blogs as LiveJournal, etc.) I have at least three dozen gardening web sites bookmarked.

Yet, I keep an old-fashioned pen-and-paper garden journal. I won't even use the pre-printed garden journals. This is a simple spiral-bound notebook that I try to update periodically. I keep wish lists, sketches of my beds with plant locations noted, I record dates of blooming, fruiting, huge storms, whatever strikes me as important... Recently, I went outside with my little notebook and proceeded to make a list of every plant on the property. I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 plant species in my bitty little yard and dutifully spent HOURS looking up the latin names and making a few notes about each plant.

And then I went to the Jacksonville Roundup. And aqcuired another dozen or so new-to-me species. Then it was my birthday, and friends gave me a few more. Now, I'm up to around 150 plant species and the idea of converting my little notebook to some sort of digital format seems so ridiculously overwhelming... I've decided to save that little task for the next hard freeze when I'm stuck inside the house with little else to do. . .

Incidentally, I've found graph paper to be invaluable when sketching plant locations. I still have not found a computer program that does what I want it to in terms of helping me draw in the property with plant locations and then keep a profile of the plants. I guess that'll be the book I'm writing!

Welcome Kitty;,

This summer we renovated the entire yard of the house we bought a couple of years ago. I have done an inventory like you mentioned and have found Dave's journal system works well for me. It's so easy to tie it into the plant files and then folks from Dave's can look through to see what you grow if they're interested in trades, etc. If you'd like to see how I set mine up, I'll try to post a hyperlink. If it doesn't work, just click on my name at the post and at my info page look for my journal. I currently have 125 different kinds of plants on my 1/3 acre.

http://davesgarden.com/journal/edit/

Good luck. You will love it here. I've only been a member for a few months but couldln't live without Dave's.

Leslie

kitty, you're in my thoughts tonight (and prayers). even tho it's not a 'cane-it's still a big mess and messes with your head to boot! stay safe. debi

Thanks Debi...for your thoughts and prayers. We are shuttered, and have put plants in pots in the center of wide spread and low Sea Grapes...hope that we wake up in the am with settled weather. Must admit that we have been wishing for rain, as the ground has been sooo dry...so guess we have gotten our wish!

My hope for all of you in Florida, is that Katrina is mild...and your homes and loved ones are safe!

Thanks again to all who have responded...I am going to do something and think I will start here, with the journal. Leslie I'm going to look at yours--many thanks!

Soon I'll post some photos of our winding paths & low rock walls, and what's behind
them.
Kitty

Leslie, I like your journal. Where did you get your fruit cocktail tree?

Leslie,

Your journal was very helpful...everything from what you called the area, to your comments gave me ideas. Now I can't wait to get started!

Thanks very, very much!
Kitty

Woops! Sorry, I forgot to watch the thread. Thank you for your kind words.

Fireant13, I got the tree through a landscaper friend, but they are also available at area nurseries. I know Lukas Nursery in Oviedo has them, along with everything else. Mine has four fruits - naval oranges, ruby red grapefruit, persian limes and tangelos. I'm pinching off the forming fruits this year and next to give the tree time to settle in and grow.

I'm going to have todo one of Sidney's plots now.

Here are some before and after shots of our renovation.
Good luck with your plans everyone.
Leslie

The front yard before:

Leslie, you proud of those Maitland boys, or what?!!! they might have lost, but they got heart! debi

and after........

The back yard east:

now

looking west

that corner now

end of drive then

and now..........

Driveway side yard:

Leslie,
That is so much fun to see before and after.
You have increased the curb appeal about 200%.
It really looks inviting now.
How did you do the bricks?
I llove it!
sidney

and now (from the other end of the drive)..............

a better comparison shot

and finally, the other side of the house which is my new tropicals garden. There's no "before" for this side because it was so overgrown with azaleas that you couldn't get in there!

Please forgive me if I've been too indulgent in posting all of these. I've always wanted to do a garden overhaul and this "new" house gave us the opportunity because it had so little there to begin with. I'm so glad to have become a Dave's subscriber a couple of months ago and have the forums to learn from. You all have helped tremendously.

Now I spend time working in the yard everyday and DH watches from the air-conditioned comfort of his easy chair and continues to pay "child support" as he terms it when I need something for my babies.

Leslie

Hi Debi, Yea, we are really proud, and I don't even know any of the boys personally, but I know some mothers from the league. My husband was born in Williamsport where the championships are played.

Sidney,
The "bricks" are actually cast concrete made to look like stacked stone. Look carefully at the picture captioned "and now (from the other end of the drive)..............", and you will see how they are placed as a veneer over the concrete block retaining walls we put in. I think they'll look good if they EVER get them done.

God bless you all and prayers to everyone affected by Katrina.

Leslie

Leslie, beautiful job! I am also trying to rennovate my yard. I replaced some foundation plants in the front, but the back is still a large green expanse of lawn. Although my daughter always wanted a pool, I am not getting one, but I am aiming for a pond. I like the side yards without lawn (less mowing). I also have been using the journal since seeing yours. Of course, I don't have 150+ items in it, but I am cataloging now.
Nancy