It was 10 years ago. Christmas Day 1998. Among my assortment of gifts was a non-descript, somewhat dull looking 10-year gardener’s journal. A present from my beautiful wife. It was not my favorite gift. Not by a country mile. And, while my wife always warns me that I’m asking for it, I’m certain I never asked for a gardener’s journal.

By the way, on this day in 2007, I bought a new coffee maker. One of those Black & Decker ones that mounts under a cupboard. It replaced the same model I purchased on December 14, 2006, a Thursday.

Anyway, after I unwrapped that gardening journal, I knew instantly that I would never use it. After all, what’s a guy like me supposed to write in there?

On this day in 2006, a Wednesday that saw a morning low of 39 degrees in Niceville, I harvested the sweet potatoes that still remained in my front-yard garden. On this day in 2005, I harvested 16 pounds of sweet potatoes and 6 pounds of green beans.  In 2003, we attended the local Christmas Parade. The day was cold and windy but we had a great time. A year before that on this day, we began harvesting the kumquats growing in the back yard. 

Of course, the journal did have some nifty, useful looking pages -- like those that help you keep track of what you plant and when, and the amount you harvest. A written record like that could prove valuable for planning how much to grow in future seasons.

On this day in 2001, I gave my youngest son his first Hardy Boy’s book. In 2000, my wife ordered a special Christmas tree from a place up north called Fruit Haven Nursery (800-336-5594), and we were putting the house back together after having a new ceramic tile floor installed -- a job that was finished the day before.

Upon further inspection of the journal, I found some handy pages in there that could help me keep track of the growth of my fruit trees, and other pages to record insecticide and disease control applications.

That’s pretty good stuff. And maybe, I thought, I could occasionally find something to jot down in the daily journal part.

On this day in 1999, it was sunny and mild, there were big bombs being dropped on the Eglin reservation and we began to harvest the first tangerines that were growing on the small Dancy tangerine tree I had planted on April 6 of that same year (the tree was 56” tall then with a trunk girth of 3.25”.  Our harvest that year was 24 tangerines).

On this day in 2008, I asked my much-loved for only one gift this Christmas: Another 10-year Gardener’s Journal. The one she gave to me in 1998 is full up.