Many years ago I decided to keep a garden journal. Before that, I'd look at a tree or plant in my garden and instead of instant recall, the name would come to me 10 minutes later.

I record my gardening activities, usually once a week. By recording experiences with plantings, insects, questionable color and texture schemes, diseases, late harvest, etc., I can plan on the same successes in the future or avoid a few failures.

Nothing a gardener records in a journal is trivial; pen, paper, and imagination are not out-of-date. For example, from a page I wrote three years ago, I noticed that I had applied a liberal dose of super-phosphate around a climbing hydrangea that I had been growing for five years without the reward of a single bloom.

Last spring it held six clusters of white buds. I don't know if my super-phosphate treatment was what the vine needed to produce blooms, but I'd like to think so.

Now, should I try this recipe on a stubborn wisteria vine? I notice from my journal record that I performed the same treatment on my wisteria and it formed buds - but a late spring frost killed them. It is important to record your successes and failures - no matter how disappointing.

I noticed in rereading my journal entries that I left a few blank spots in early January, but for the most part, I filled the pages with information that seemed important to me at the time.

I have found that my garden journals are as essential as any hoe or trowel and may help to improve next year's garden as much as a good pile of compost. Some journals have pages with pockets for empty seed packets - excellent for quick reference.

You can spend some time during these early winter months perusing your journal as you dip into seed and plant catalogs that should be arriving in the mail soon.

Contact Tim Morehouse by Web site: www.getmoregarden.com; mail: c/o Cincinnati Enquirer. (If writing, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope.)