Plant, photograph, print: 100 days in the garden

Documenting the progress of a vegetable patch or a wild and vibrant flower garden is an imaginative way to not only remember how to look after your plants, but also to chart the growth of your garden and how it comes to life.

TikTok creator Chloe Mckechnie, who lives in Torquay, UK, has attracted a large online following thanks to her helpful and inspiring garden updates, plant rescue posts and how-to videos. To record her progress and provide a useful resource for the future, Chloe decided to document 100 days of her gardening with the pocket-sized Canon Zoemini 2 and a 100-sheet pack of Canon ZINK™ 5 x 7.6cm sticky-backed photo paper. She was already keeping a gardening journal, but now she could add mini prints alongside her handwritten notes detailing her growing methods and step-by-step plans.

The Canon Zoemini range and the bumper paper pack is ideal for transformation projects such as this – whether you're recording 100 days of a home DIY or decoration project, 100 precious days with your newborn or the first 100 days of having a new pet.

"A 100-day project is a really exciting and fun way for creators to see how far they've come and I was really excited to explore all the ways I could use the Canon Zoemini 2 printer in my gardening projects," says Chloe.

Here, she shares the story behind her 100-day gardening journey.

Chloe started gardening several years ago when she moved into her flat with her partner, and revamping the outdoor space helped her zest for gardening blossom. "I started off by just tidying up as the garden was covered with overgrown plants and weeds," she explains. "My passion for it has grown every year. I absolutely love gardening and the space we have created – it's my happy place."

Chloe decided to photograph a daily highlight to include in her journal and a monthly spread detailing the plants that were thriving at that time. "I also made my own instruction pages," she explains. "With gardening, the best way to learn is from what you've done in the past, so making these pages was really fun.

"It's the first year I've had a proper go at growing my own veg," she adds. "I've grown spinach and carrots in the past, but this year I also grew peas, potatoes, tomatoes and chillies. I took photos of my vegetable and flower garden to show the transformation from spring to summer," she says.

Chloe planted tulips, crocuses and alliums alongside her favourite sugar snap peas. "The vegetable I've loved documenting the most has to be the sugar snap peas as they were really fast growing and easy to start from seed," she says. "They also really challenged me as a gardener as I had to create supports for the shoots to climb."

Chloe used the free Canon Mini Print app to connect her smartphone to the Canon Zoemini 2. Compatible with iOS and Android devices, the app enabled her to showcase her creativity and bring her photos to life.

Within the app, you can personalise your photos with stickers and frames, and there's also a selection of layouts, including a Label option with a range of customisable templates to choose, plus options to create collages with multiple images.

"The app is so easy to use and versatile," says Chloe. "There are lots of options for printing stickers and labels which I would never have thought about."

The sticky-backed nature of all Canon Zoemini range prints makes journaling easy – there's no glue, so you don't have to worry about making a mess, and there's minimal packaging waste too. All you need to do is peel off the backs and stick the prints in. The prints are also tear and water resistant, so Chloe could update her journal while she was outside working in the garden.

As well as the Canon ZINK (Zero Ink) 2 x 3in (50 x 76mm) Photo Paper, which comes in packs of 20 and 50 sheets as well as 100, there is also the option to use Canon ZINK 1.3in Pre-Cut Circle Stickers to add variety to a journal layout.

Alongside prints for her journal, Chloe created labels for her plant pots, cutting the prints into multiple strips, so she could identify the different seedlings in her greenhouse. "It can be quite hard to keep track when you plant a lot of seeds at once, so the labels have really helped," she explains. "I also printed some pictures with a border that I will use for labelling bags of spring bulbs while they're in storage."

Chloe thinks that having a visual reference of a gardening season will be a great help next year. "Documenting the process of growing different vegetables from seed to harvest is really going to help with my future veg gardens," says Chloe. "I can physically see what my plants should be looking like at every stage. The 100-day project has been an amazing experience," she adds. "I love my garden and gardening, but this project has really challenged me like never before." Having a physical journal to look back on and flick through rather than just storing images on a phone can make a real emotional difference, especially after finishing an endeavour such as this.

What project would you document over 100 days, or in 100 images? Whatever you choose, you can stick your prints on a wall, hang on a handmade photo line or even add to a custom-made scrapbook. The pocket-sized Canon Zoemini 2 is small enough to always be on hand for capturing your instant prints, and a bumper pack of ZINK paper is all you will need.

Written by Lorna Dockerill