April 3, 2025

Garden Journaling with Bethan Burton

Explore record-keeping, observational note-taking, and lively illustrations of our cultivated spaces.

By The Art Toolkit Team

A colorful hand-drawn illustration featuring various garden plants. Sections highlight tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries, lettuce, and marigolds, with playful text noting "A Walk in the Garden" and "Winter Begins Today!"

This is a recording from our live demo, Garden Journaling, with nature journaler Bethan Burton on April 2nd, 2025.

Bethan discussed her journaling practice and explained how keeping a garden journal can enhance your gardening experience through creative record-keeping. She discussed what information to include in your journal, effective ways to track plantings and harvests, and how these records support becoming a better gardener (and artist!).

Follow Along and Sketch

Bethan shared a copy of her sketchbook page after the live demo to show what she demonstrated!

A watercolor illustration featuring three botanical sketches: a pea plant on the left, red cherry tomatoes in the middle, and a blue cornflower on the right. The word "Grow" is positioned above them. A color palette is displayed on the right side, along with the date "3 APRIL" and numerical elements below.
Bethan included sections for plant sketches, swatches, weather notes, and the date.

Supplies

For this demo, Bethan recommends having the following supplies on hand:

  • Paper, pen, and something to color with—it’s that simple!

Delightful Tidbits and Whimsical Reflections

  • “A garden journal doesn’t have to be neat and tidy: it is a record, a working document, and it’s for you!”

“My motivation is to feel the wonder and feel the excitement.”
—Bethan

  • Bethan loves to creatively capture information through illustrations of plants and insects as well as by collecting data. Her pages include record-keeping ranging from measurements of weather information and the moon cycle, or creating diagrams mapping the location of crops in her garden. Download a blank copy of her Garden Weather Wheel, and give it a try!

August calendar featuring a circular layout with dates marked for various moon phases and gardening activities. Handwritten text notes the planting of calendula seeds and indicates their growth. Color-coded legend at the bottom outlines moon phases, including New Moon and Waxing Crescent. Decorative elements include botanical illustrations.

  • “The date anchors you in time. When you’re in the garden, its very much a cyclical thing you’ll come back to again and again.”

  • Bethan documents successes and learns from the challenges, and her garden journal is a record of those both!

  • Harvest lists are another joyful way of celebrating the garden.

  • Chop up seed packets and paste them into her journal, like a garden scrapbook.

  • When Bethan doesn’t have time to journal in the garden, she likes to snap photos, take a few observational notes down (of her surroundings and of her mindstate), and make illustrations from photos when she has time before bed or later on.

  • “Color mixing, I’ve come to understand, is just a little back and forward dance between the primaries, and sometimes you overshoot and sometimes you get it spot on. But don’t be afraid to do the dance back and forward. The more you do it, the fun it becomes and the more intuitive and easy it becomes.”

A vibrant blue flower grows in a garden, surrounded by green foliage. Next to it, a watercolor illustration depicts the same flower, showcasing detailed petals and a slender stem with color swatches of purple and green.
A hand holds a potted plant with thick roots and fine roots extending from them, alongside a detailed botanical sketch of the same plant showing its roots. An open sketchbook lies on a table with a drawing of the plant's structure.
A hand holds a green plant with large leaves above an open sketchbook. The sketchbook features pencil drawings of various leaves and handwritten notes about weeds in a garden. Colorful art supplies are scattered around the scene.
A vibrant orange calendula flower stands against a blurred background, next to a detailed black and white sketch showing the flower's shape and petals, accompanied by color swatches of yellow and orange.

Bethan’s Everyday Art Supplies

Bethan shared that she loves to keep her supplies simple, opting for a fineliner pen, a limited palette of watercolors, and a journal. Occasionally she’ll use a magnifying glass or another fun instrument to collect data or observe her surroundings.

Bethan’s Demi Palette features two primary triads and three neutral paints. To recreate her palette, start with a Demi Palette, add some Standard Pans, and finally the following paints: New Gamboge, Hansa Yellow Light, Ultramarine, Phthalo Blue (GS), Quinacridone Magenta, Neutral Tint, Perylene Green, Buff Titanium, and Scarlet Lake.

A watercolor palette with labeled colors including ultramarine, phthalo blue, quinacridone magenta, scarlet lake, Hansa yellow light, new gamboge, neutral tint, buff titanium, and perylene green.

About Bethan

Bethan Burton is an artist and environmental educator from Brisbane, Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Conservation Biology and a Master of Environment in Education for Sustainability. Visit her website for a gallery of Bethan’s journal pages and latest news, or find her on Instagram.

A smiling woman with long hair is sitting on the forest floor, surrounded by pinecones and greenery, while writing in a notebook. She is wearing a yellow sweater and floral shorts.
Bethan sketches pinecones in the forest. Bethan is the founder of International Nature Journaling Week and the host of the podcast Journaling With Nature. She teaches nature journaling to all ages and is passionate about connecting people with the natural world.
A woman wearing a knit hat and a blue jacket sits on a rock, sketching in a notebook with a paintbrush. A palette of watercolors and a bag are nearby. The background features rocky terrain and sparse vegetation.
Bethan Burton shared a photo from ten years ago on a mountain in Tasmania when she got her first Pocket Palette and took it out to paint on location! “I remember being so amazed by it, that I could have everything I needed in such a tiny space! And I still use my Pocket Palette every day!”
“We’re not drawing for perfection, we’re drawing for connection. Any sketch you draw is working towards you knowing your garden. It’s about journaling our cultivated spaces.”
—Bethan

Bethan Burton
Bethan’s Website | Social Media

Thank you for joining us!
An artist sites on a rock, dipping a paintbrush in a Pocket Palette.

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