Why I Started Using a 5-Year Garden Journal
Editor Meghan Shinn reflects on how a 5-year journal has shaped her garden planning and offers a peek inside the latest issue of Horticulture magazine
Summer Issue 2026 | Editor’s Letter
In 2024 I started keeping my gardening notes in a five-year journal. This type provides space for five annual entries under each day of each month. I used to use a regular notebook, but I’ve found the five-year format more helpful. It keeps me succinct, and it’s easier to reference.
I do cheat with two additional diaries: one for keeping notes as I read new or classic garden books, the other for sketching planting ideas and thinking on paper. My teenage daughters prefer this to my thinking out loud, especially when it involves Latin names.
Learn from the previous year’s experience
When I planned for this year’s indoor seed-starting, my 2025 entries reminded me that I tend to start too many seeds, much too early. For 2026 I would start later and fewer! Columbines (Aquilegia canadensis and A. viridiflora cvs.) in milk jugs outside. The cutest viola (‘Bunny Ears’). Only four kinds of cosmos, leftover from last year. Sweet peas, just one cultivar (‘Prince of Orange’), which can move outdoors so fast.
Experimenting with new plants
The plan went well until I began editing the summer issue of Horticulture. Then, I really needed to try some plectranthus, as Victor Lazzari recommends in this issue's plant feature. I ordered a packet of P. argentatus ‘Silver Shield’. And I added several foxgloves, because I’d like to see the magic of biennials in my own garden, like Daryl Beyers encourages. But to maximize flat-rate shipping, I could order another packet or two. I remembered I wanted to try growing honeywort (Cerinthe major), and the seed company had the variety I wanted, ‘Purpurescens’, and ‘Kiwi Blue’. I took both.
(Confession: I also ended up ordering three heirloom pelargoniums, a begonia and a tender salvia. But those were plants, not seeds!)
Despite straying from my plan—and despite good germination rates—I didn’t feel overwhelmed as spring shifted to summer, just excited. I think it’s because voices I trust led me to the plectranthus, with leaves just as soft and pretty as Victor says, and the biennials, whose life cycle is rather calming.
Thank you for trusting Horticulture on your gardening adventures, too. May you only be excited by your plants this season!
Meghan Shinn, Editor
Get a Peek at the Summer Issue of Horticulture:
From Cincinnati to Chanticleer: A Horticulture Student’s Journey
Naples Botanical Garden Is a Treasure Trove of Tropical Plants
Get a Digital Copy of Horticulture Magazine on Zinio!
