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Show By BILL MEACHEM Some really enthusiastic gardeners who I know wilt have a written record of everything that happened in the garden during the year. THEY KEEP volumes of notes which include the dates seeds were started, the names and locations of all their plants, the time the flowers came into bloom, when they harvested their first and last vegetables and what results they got from different vegetable vege-table varieties. This can be a great help in planning next year's garden. It is surprising how quickly you forget things after they happen. With me, I usually can remember the exceptionally excep-tionally good things or things that goofed - but for the general run of plants I follow what I have done over the years. BUT 1 do try to keep records of my vegetables. I do this because I want to get the most possible out of the small space that is devoted to these crops. The only way I can plan for the following year is to know what happened last year. YOU DON'T need elaborate records. Just a little notebook or diary of what you do each week is all you need. Be sure to note the things that will be helpful. Dates are important when starting seeds. However, be sure to note the progress of the seedlings. IF YOU find them shooting up to the sky, thin and yellowish, before it is time to plant outside, be sure to note this. Next year you may want to start them a week or two later. As the season goes on you certainly will want to make notes on how successful the different varieties are. ACTUALLY, what you will be doing is comparing your results with those that are in the seed catalogs. ?ear in mind that they may not be the same. Remember that the catalogs ca-talogs and most of the information infor-mation you read about plants is based on averages --average --average sunshine, average temperature, average rainfall and average (or even above average) care of the plants. BEFORE condemning a variety of group of plants, check the conditions you had, or have, during the growing season. A "no rain" notation will tell you it was dry. Or "brr, it's cold" will tell you about the temperatures. These are the kind of notes that may help you decide whether or not to try something again. 1 LIKE to keep a photo journal of my garden as well. I take lots of photos and slides as reminders of what I saw and did the previous season. Over the years I have worked with many of the top garden and flower photographers pho-tographers in the world -Samuel Gottscho, Malak of Ottawa, Pedro Guerrero and George Taloumis, to name a few - and if you want to take a few hints from them for better garden and flower pictures, pic-tures, you may have to add a few things to your camera case. MOST WILL have a hand cultivator to scratch up the soil for a better shot. Small grass shears are always handy. Again, a little trimming trim-ming makes a neater photo. Believe it or not, I also have a can of Raid House and Garden Gar-den Spray in the car when I am out photographing. I SPRAY the plant before I photograph it. Why? Sometimes Some-times there will be one or two bugs on a stem that I overlook when focusing the camera. But, blow the slide up on a large screen, and all eyes go to the bugs, not the flowers. To make a photo journal useful, you will have to jot down some information on the side of the slide or back of the print. THE DATE is important. Also, the location and -- above all - the name of the plant or flower. Do this while you remember it. If I am taking photos of flowers other than my own, I mark down the names on a sheet of paper in the order 1 took them. By looking at the numbers on the slides or negatives, I can match up the names with the pictures. With a name, the picture becomes more impor- -tant to you and others. |