Keeping a record....any suggestions

Have you looked at the Member's Diaries above?

I've been using that.  What it doesn't give me is a plan of my veg plot to record what I grew where but it is giving me the dates I sowed things and when they germinated.

take photos as well. I take lots of photos as my memory is rubbish and I forget to make notes in my notebook.  I do keep notes though but it's just when I remember  :oops:   I take pics through the growing season to remind what I planted and where. I also use wooden stakes with "Desiree" or onion sets and the date then take a pic. The camera can't lie  

Goodness me, lots of replies so soon....thank you very much.

I think taking a few photo's is a good idea. We do download all our photo's to PC now so that would help a fair bit.  

Also I do like to take notes but my main problem being that to date they have not been very organised and when done manually I frequently lose them.

Whereas the admin geeky side of my nauture means I do spend a lot of time on PC anyway so keeping a record on here which I could print off and pin up in kitchen or utility room and update would appeal to me. I could then use that to update on PC so I have a permanent record from year to year.

I wasn't thinking of anything too complicated or fancy just the basics so I could keep a track of things. My son who lives in the next road to me is also a keen gardener and veggie grower and we often swap seeds/plants etc but occasionally this means I don't always have the exact details to hand of the plants he has passed on to me and vice versa.

Last year due to lack of communication we doubled up on some crops. I thought I would give him a copy of my plant records so he could add his stuff to it to avoid same problem in future.

Thanks for your very helpful comments, I think a simple basic spreadsheet might be the answer after all  

Last year I bought a "Week to View" Diary in Feb.  (It was an A5 hardback and cost 10p!!!! )

I have numbered each double page spread with the week numbers 1 - 52.
Then all the Mondays became my 2007 entries for that week.
This year Tuesdays are my 2008 entries.

You get the picture.  It will last 6 years I reckon as the Sat/Sun slots are half size.

Easy comparison to last year etc.

However if you can get an A4 diary it may be better - especially at this time of year when A5 is a tad space limiting!

O.K. So I've got a reputation for being a bit of a boring organiser.! :roll: - I confess to printing out  from Outlook - month per page A4 and putting in a lever arch file in the shed. Then whenever you sow/pot/plant anything., just jot it in.. but do it in pencil, cause I've changed my mind soooo many times with the damn weather. I've also printed out some simple boxes on a SS that look something like the Beds, and I 'try' (emphasise that one!!)
to plan what goes where and record onto that. Having said all of that, I've still not got a clue what I'm doing

When I got my plot a friend got me the Royal horticultural society five year gardener's record book. It has a double page for each week (labeled January week 1, week 2 etc) with rows to record weather, tasks done, plants in bloom etc and five columns, one for each year. Its a good idea as you can compare year to year and maybe use last year as a reminder of what to do this year...... unfortunately I'm not a diary sort of person and stopped doing it after about four months!