Creating a Box Journal For Your Square Foot Garden

I get a lot of questions about keeping track of what is planted in our square foot garden.  I know that others use planting markers or a journal of some sort; but those things simply get lost in my house.

I keep most of my records on my computer in a simple Microsoft Word document.  However you can draw a grid and do this on paper as well.

Because I plant and replant squares throughout the season, I need something that can be changed easily.  I find this is very easy and not wasteful.

<— This is an example of my Box Journal document.  Each box in my yard has a number (1, 2, 3 and so on).  Then every square within the box has a number as well.  You could make the a letter if it is easier to separate numbers and letters.

You can see I included a direction guide but adding where my porch is and where the yard is.  This helps me so I don’t think Square 1 is Square 13…

 

In addition to planting date, I now include an approximate harvest date.  I add this date to my outlook calendar as well.  Just keeps my from messing around with anything too early.  😉

Then as a harvest and re-plant the squares I will adjust the journal accordingly.

Creating a box journal document is simple – just follow my steps below.

Creating your own Box Journal Document (click on the picture for a larger image).
This is based on a 4×4 box with 16 squares.

Step 1 – Open a new document and insert a table 4 squares wide and 6 long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 2 – Highlight the top 4 boxes and merge them together.  Put a label reference which way the box is facing (I used porch).  To merge the boxes simply right click after highlighting them and select merge.  Then repeat this process for the bottom for boxes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3 – Add in your square labels – what you planted in each box, the date and possible the harvest date.

Now you can save the document and come back and edit as needed.

That’s it!

 

 

 

Bonus Step 4 – The example I showed in color is mainly for effect but if you would prefer to add color that isn’t hard!

First highlight the squares that you want to shade with color.

 

 

 

 

Right click there and choose borders and shading.

 

 

 

 

Click on shading and choose your color.  Hit ok and viola!