Garden Spend and Plant Purchase Log

Who this is for

What the garden cost this year, line by line. Every plant, packet, bag, tool and load of materials with the supplier, the quantity and the price, multiplied out and totalled — and a tick against the plants that were still there at the end of the season.

Gardeners who suspect the garden costs more than they think, allotment holders splitting costs, and anyone who wants to know which nursery's plants actually survived before buying there again.

What this helps you track

• Everything bought for the garden, dated, with the supplier
• What each line cost, multiplied out from quantity and price
• What the year came to in total
• Which plants were still alive at the end of the season
• Where each plant went, so a label lost in January can be recovered

How to use it

1. Write the garden, the year and the currency at the top.
2. Add a line for each purchase as you make it, straight from the receipt — date, what it was, the category and the supplier.
3. Enter the quantity and the price of one; the line total, the column totals and the summary are worked out in the browser and the workbook.
4. Say where a plant went in the notes so it can be found again when the label has faded.
5. At the end of the season, go back through the plant lines and tick the ones still growing.
6. Keep the receipts with the sheet. If anything is guaranteed, the dated line and the receipt together are what a nursery will ask for.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Does it tell me whether I paid too much?

No. It totals what you typed. No price, rate or typical cost appears anywhere on the sheet, because what a plant costs depends entirely on where and when you bought it.

How is it different from the garden project budget?

The project budget is for one job — a new patio, a rebuilt border — with an estimate beside every actual. This is a running log of everything bought across a whole year, with no estimate at all.

Why a tick for what survived?

Because it is the column that changes what you buy next year. A supplier whose plants keep dying and a spot where nothing takes are both easier to see once there is a year of ticks.

Should I include tools and materials?

Yes, if you want the real total. The category column keeps plants separate from compost, tools and hire, so the plant spend can still be read off on its own.

Can two people share one sheet?

On paper, yes — that is how most allotment shares work. The browser version saves in one browser, so print it or download the completed PDF if you both need a copy.