Unlike some of us who became gardening addicts later in life, Joyce Mennor learned the love of gardening early.

Her first memories include the smell and the feel and the blackness of the soil of her grandfather’s garden. She still plants white and purple petunias in honor of the petunias her grandfather planted around his house.

As a child, Mennor received petunias to take home with instructions to plant them when the sun went down so the plants wouldn’t go into shock. She was also instructed to pinch off old blooms so they wouldn’t use up energy the plant needed to establish itself in a new home.

Mennor has fond recollections of what she learned from her grandfather and his garden. Her one wish is that she had more information about what her grandparents grew and what they learned from their experiences.

When it came time for Mennor to do the presentation required to complete her training to become an apprentice master gardener, she decided to share her wishes with her classmates and urged them to “pass along the love of gardening” to their children and grandchildren by becoming gardening journalists.

I caught up with Mennor in the parking lot of a nursery — a most suitable place — to talk about garden journaling and the importance of leaving your garden journal as a legacy for your children and grandchildren.

My first question for Mennor was “Just exactly what is garden journaling?”

She replied garden journaling is the documentation of your experiences and knowledge of gardening. It is helpful in that it allows you to learn from your mistakes.

Because you’ve written down what did and didn’t work in the past, you’ll eliminate guesswork in succeeding years.

“Most important,” Mennor said, “is that a garden journal provides a perfect way for you to pass on your love and passion for gardening.”

I asked what sort of supplies a gardener needed to get started in journaling. Mennor told me that supplies you choose depends on your type of work habits.

Note cards or loose records in a shoebox or recipe box work for some and they can be rearranged through the years. A loose leaf binder also lets you insert and rearrange pages as the need arises. A bound or spiral notebook, or a scrapbook lets you keep notes, photographs, plant receipts and perhaps plant markers side by side.

Some garden journalists simply use a calendar to record their activities on a daily basis or you could get really complex and set up a filing storage system.

OK, I’ve got my supplies together. My next question is “How am I going to organize all this information?”

Perhaps the simplest method is to just put together a chronological record. That way I can record my gardening activities as they happen, along with weather conditions of the season.

Mennor tells me that is fine, but I might want to consider that finding information about my favorite Heuchera (coral bells) may be difficult to retrieve if I just go with a chronological record. She says to consider alphabetizing plants by name, preferably by botanical name instead of their common name.

It may also be suitable to organize by category with sections for annuals, perennials, vegetables, fruits, perhaps trees and shrubs.

What kind of information goes into my garden journal?

First, I’ll need to make sure I’ve recorded the actual date of documentation. I’ll need to make a note of whether I’m working with plants, seeds, seedlings, their name and variety.

The date I put them in the ground is crucial. As the season progresses, I’m to record harvest time and yields, fertilizer and chemicals used, and any pest and disease problems and their solutions.

Additional observations may include germination time and conditions, transplanting, or soil and weather conditions when the seeds or plant were placed in the ground. Tracking weather and temperature conditions through the season can be helpful, as well as information on where plants are purchased.

For flowers, peak bloom time and the quality of the blooms is information that could prove valuable as you move plants around your gardens.

You can make your garden journal even more informative if you include small bags for seeds and petals or favorite recipes using harvested herbs, vegetables and fruits. You can keep soil test papers and records of soil conditions.

Other possibilities include landscape designs, future plans and a gardening wish list. These last three are especially important so that when you visit the nursery, instead of buying plants that capture your attention because of bloom color or exciting foliage, you purchase plants that fit in with your long-term plans.

Yes, for you techies out there, you can use your computer to make and keep journal entries. A computer provides the advantage of allowing you to quickly enter data and easily add photographic records to your journal.

If you, as Mennor urges, want to leave a treasure trove of gardening information as a legacy for those who come after you, you’ll want to print out those computer pages.

There’s nothing like exploring an old box or notebook full of information left by your favorite gardener and being able to touch it, knowing their fingerprints are on the pages and that it was prepared with love to help you grow a better garden.

Susan Struthers is a Penn State Extension Master Gardener.