I have two blogs – one active and one I am working to get started again. It needs a remake and I need to get busy with it. I also have a hand written person journal – it is where I whine and complain to myself about most things. No one needs to hear that stuff so it is hidden in a journal that is tucked in the bottom of the basket by my bed. Then I have my garden journal which is my problem.
I started my garden journal in I Book Author – so cool. I would write my own garden book as I will tracking my work. I have a chapter with images and information on my old family garden. A chapter of my Mothers garden and then my current garden. The current garden is where I got into trouble.
The technology, my computer, has advantages – like I can add images of the garden, individual flowers or plants and in theory I should be able to track information from year to year. I can have chapters about different topics like the history of the family garden. The disadvantages are the computer can’t go with me into the garden, there is a learning curve in using this program – adding charts or graphs and making images stay where I want them is not as easy as I thought. It takes time.
The graph paper Mead notebook also has advantages – I can take it wherever I go, I don’t have to worry about dirt or water when I use it. I can draw pictures (even if they look funny) of the plants I am learning about or growing. I am quicker about making charts to track what I am planting and when things need to be transplanted. It’s disadvantage is I cannot easily add images, the historical work in the paper journal does not work well due to the lack of images and chapters are harder to set up. I just can’t estimate how many blank pages to leave between chapters.
So here I sit with my paper garden journal and my computer – stuck!! 
I am guessing it is not an either or situation but it is an and! I think I may need to see my paper journal as the rough draft that goes with me into the mud and muck of my garden. Then make time to transcribe that work into the computer program later in the day or maybe once a week.
I just didn’t want to have to do both – I am a bit impatient and that seems like extra work. On the other hand it might just teach me to slow down and learn by adding more detail and research to the re write on the computer.
So do you have any advise for me – old school Mead notebook or modern computer garden journal? Do you have many journals? How do you handle this problem? 
Words from JL 
I do have many journals, sometimes more than one at a time. What a great project you’ve set for yourself. I think you will have to slow down, as you suggested and take the paper journals into the garden with your camera. Then transcribe or re-draft, as the case may be. I wish you luck. What a wonderful combination, writing and gardening!
Thanks – more I think about it the more I agree it may have to be both. Yes, it is a great project – it is just that I keep expanding it.
I am thrilled to read this! I always felt like I wasn’t doing it “right” by having more than 1 journal. I definitely had a separate journal for sharing in school. But I also had other things I wanted to journal… what I now know are slices of life, prayers, special slices to scrapbook, recipes… I could go on and on. I don’t know why I always feel like I need permission to… well, to be me. Thank you.
Linda do what works for you! I keep thinking I can go down to one journal and it never works. Besides it is fun picking out different journals to write in!
I cannot even imagine having more than one blog at a time! I’m amazed not only at your organizational skill, but your ability to write so many things. I’m struggling to crank this thing out each day this month. Sadly, I think your handwritten personal journal is what I am doing on my blog! I can’t give you advice, only admiration!
Thanks – it maybe be that I am just more scattered in my thinking with so much going on. You also have to know that one blog gets a great deal more attention during the school year and then the second one on wild gardens kicks back up in the spring. I let it hibernate just like the plants and animals. 😊