RHS A Gardener's Five Year Record Book Flexibound – April 6, 2017

It took me a few minutes to figure out the best way to utilize this book. It's essentially a five-year diary for gardening notes. I'm just going to tell you here, there are enough pages per month to have one full opened-up-book-both-pages per week, with 5 columns (one for each of 5 years) so you can enter and then compare later, your notes each week on what's up in your garden. The only problem is that it took about 2 months to get shipped, and it's not Amazon who is shipping it so there wasn't an easy way to communicate. I just waited, and it did show up. I ordered it 3/21, expected delivery 4/7 but it actually showed up on 4/25. Only 2 weeks later. I think this will become a precious book to me over time. It has a nice ribbon marker, too.

This is the third Gardner's Five Year Record Book that I have purchased for myself...beginning the 11th year since I discovered this wonderful aid for a gardener! Easy to use and invaluable for making notes about good performing plants...or plants one should avoid planting again! Or remembering visits of wild critters, special birds, butterflies, unusual weather facts or anything that one might want to document. Attractive illustrations and well designed. I scotch tape favorite plant labels that I want to plant again to the pages or record full plant names and performance that I want to remember. They make great gifts for your gardener friends too!

Does what it says on the tin: gives you a place to write down 5 years of garden plans. Don't expect too much detail or guidance, though. There is just one table-style format to the whole book, with only 5 sections: a monthly planner, "Plants to Buy," "Plant Suppliers," "Gardens to Visit," and "Notes." I've seen other planners with much more detail -- places to map out plans of your garden for different seasons on a grid, etc. None of that here. The illustrations are very pretty, though, and it's a nice book overall. Has an attractive ribbon marker and would make a nice gift.

Can’t wait to use this! A gardener designed it! Super practical layout. My favorite of 8 or 9 I sent for...reviewing for gifts.

I was so excited to receive this book! I flipped through it and was instantly confused. I want a layout with columns for each year so I can see my side-by-side comparison, which is what (I think?) this is... But there are 5 pages for each month. I assume that is supposed to allow for the flexibility of when a month is 4 1/2 weeks long, but it's not clear. It could be one page per year for 5 years.Each page is a few rows for weather, what's blooming, tasks and notes. That's it. I was hoping for more.I looked for the instructional pages to explain how to use the book and there are none. The only writing in the whole book is preamble that talks about the history of the artwork. Which I suppose would be interesting, maybe? It wasn't the info I wanted so I skipped it.

I looked at all kinds of differently formatted garden journals. This one turned out to be exactly what I needed. It has just enough prompts to remind you what you might want to record, but I use the entire space for notes on what I'm seeding, what's working, what didn't work, pests, weather, fertilizer, timing, etc. etc. It will help me improve other time for sure, as I've noted what needs to be earlier or later for next year and this single journal is formatted to last 5 years.

It is just what I wanted. To keep track of all my garden happenings.

This was exactly what I was looking for with separate columns for five years. The art work is absolutely gorgeous too.