January is the month to start new resolutions to reorganize your life. My New Year’s resolution is to update my garden journal. Free and inexpensive ways to journal are available on your computer, iPhone and iPad. Let’s dig a little deeper.

The first dig is for free garden journals that can be printed and arranged in your own ring binder.  Check the following: frugalliving.about.com/od/gardening    This site has a front and back outside cover along with 18  practical pages to use.  One practical page is the Plant Profile page.  www.gardenersandcrafts.com This printable garden journal  includes an excellent soil analysis chart worth adding to your journal.

The second dig is also free online. The Vegetable Garden Planner includes a garden journal, gardening “to-dos”, uploading pictures and smart phone apps. Your Gardening Journal from Dave’s Garden is a website to create your own gardening journal and participate in a gardening blog. You can also share seeds or plants with other gardeners. The plant database is extensive.

The third dig is free with an iPhone or iPad.  MyFolia Gardening Tracker is a social tracker and organizer. It includes a garden organizer, an area to showcase your garden, and communication with other growers in your area and the world. You can write a garden journal and track your plantings. Delve down in this tracker. Mobile apps using the camera include the Garden Journal. You can post the photo, document where it is purchased along with the cost, and record the growth of the plant. Gardening companion includes articles, a blog, gardening know how, journal weather and more. The last app tested was Photo Garden. It lets you take pictures of plants and place them in plots on the phone. Links are given for garden ideas, designs, planters and lawn maintenance.

The fourth dig will cost you. Texas Gardener magazine offers for a nominal fee a 2016 Texas Gardener Planning Guide and Calendar. The calendar includes when to plant, fertilize, prune and spray. Room is available for recording planting dates and rainfall.

The fifth dig is an online website that charges a fee. The Old Farmer’s Almanac sends you email messages as to when you should start seeds or transplants in your area. It has a garden planner with a voice activated demonstration to guide you on ways to draw your garden plot.

This is just a small sampling of ways to plan your garden journal for the New Year! Can you dig it?

Reach Jefferson County Master Gardener Eileen Slater at enslater08@gmail.com or call the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service at (409)835-8461.