Data, data, data

I've wanted to make a good garden journal ever since I moved here and started this garden.  But I kept putting it off.  Then when I got more serious, I bought some existing garden journal blank books, looked at how other folks were doing it, and bought more office supplies to make my own. Then I thought it would be better to do it digitally because of the search capabilities.  So I decided to do it in FileMaker.  Then I started getting paranoid about having to redesign it over and over again as I learned more about what works and what doesn't in database design.  So I contacted an ex-co-worker of mine nearly a year ago to see if she'd help me with the initial design. She said she would and I was very excited.  But she's a working mom and it's become clearer to me that this is never going to happen.  She doesn't answer my followup emails.

So today I went to look and see what FileMaker solutions for journaling might already be out there (I've already looked into garden stuff and there doesn't seem to be anything).  What's out there is very heavily slanted towards corporate office stuff.  Then I saw a post about Journlr (not a FileMaker database but a stand-alone application).  So I've downloaded it and am messing around in it.  It was designed with writers in mind so it's definitely a patchwork solution for me.  But I like some of it already. The iLife integration will come in handy.  But I can't help but be sad that I don't know enough to design my own FileMaker solution.  If I did, not only would it please me, but I'm sure I could market it as a run-time database solution.

So what features would YOU want to see in a garden tracking application?