Amanda, you are one of my favourite gardeners that I watch regularly here on YT. You have a wonderful, warm personality! I truly admire you staying true to yourself as well as your dedication, your creativity, your relatability, your considerateness, and sharing what works for you and your garden. You inspire so many of us (myself included) to embrace gardening on a budget as well as sticking to practical techniques to create beautiful spaces. You don’t let yourself get pressured-you listen to what works for you, go at your own pace, and you stay realistic-I totally commend that. I love your seed-starting content and seeing the whole process of sowing to outdoor planting😊 For my new year goals, they resonate with yours in that I’m once again focusing on seed-starting in order to be economical, and putting a focus on consuming less overall when possible. Thank you for all that you do! Your time and effort doesn’t go unnoticed! Happy New Year!-I look forward to seeing your gardening adventures in 2025👏🏼☺️!
I’m so glad you don’t have a channel like everyone else. Your channel is so much better than the rest because you are real. You are easy to relate to. I can’t wait for the new garden you’re going to be creating!
One of the things I love about you is that you don’t fall into the sponsorships. Seems like most channels I follow once they get a sponsor they are just never the same. It ends up being more promotional. How do I trust that that is a great product when TH-camrs are getting paid to say it. Stay true to yourself. I am a zone 6b/7a but you are one of my favorites. For 2025, i want to expand my irrigation. I am spending too much time hand watering and moving sprinklers. I also want to include more evergreen bushes and trees. Winters are long and I need green. I am also starting seeds for cut flowers I hope to sell to add money to my gardening budget. Good luck in 2025!
I have been using an Aerobin for composting for almost 10 years. It holds a lot more than you would think. Items go in the top and compost is harvested from the bottom hatch. It’s neat and tidy, takes up less space than a 3-bin system, and has a cover to protect from foragers (although the rats can chew through anything short of galvanized steel!) if you mix items in the right ratio, you can hot compost the top layers and then it shrinks down so you can add more on top. You can also just throw items in as they are available and let it cold compost. I’ve been happy with mine. It’s a great solution for urban composting.
Also, keeping the right ratio of greens to browns means no smell. If you do ever get any bad smell add browns (paper, cardboard, dried up plant material) give it a stir and in a couple of hours the smell is gone.
Fortunately, I haven’t had any issues with the smell. I always have a bag of leaves or shredded paper to layer over my kitchen scraps, which also keeps the critters out of the bin. My biggest learning curve was keeping the bin wet enough. The first year, I never added water and it stayed too dry. Now I pay more attention and add water to keep it moist. It’s definitely a bit of a learning curve but well worth it.
You are the only Amanda the Mad Gardener. I enjoy your content but I mostly enjoy you. I’m glad you realize it’s not a competition. Some of those other channels have gone off in different directions and I don’t watch them anymore.
I really appreciate your outlook towards your viewers. You seem to understand that some of us are just trying to plant beautiful plants in our yards, no matter how much space we may have to do that. And we may also be on a budget. I live in a condo and I'm 77 yrs old. I don't need a lot of anything . I also love the fact that you do a lot yourself, which encourages us to try to do things ourselves. Keep up the good gardeningg❤
Growing plants from seeds, propagation, and division is so awe inspiring and cost effective! For the first time, I'm trying winter sowing seeds in milk jugs.🤗 Thanks for helping me have the knowledge and confidence to try new things on my gardening journey!
Thank you Amanda for bringing gardening down to the basics. It helps us to also realize that a garden is achievable with a little work up front, and working with what we have.
I appreciate your honesty and candidness about reality and your channel. I watch you because of that exact point. I followed others that started off small and now pay THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO MOVE A STONE🥴🤦😑! Once again, that is not my reality. I do not "hate" on people who upgrade, change, improve, make it to the "top" so to speak or whatever the case may be but real is real. MOST OF US do not have help and have to budget. It is refreshing to see someone that is gardening on the same level and shows success and failures and not always "TIDY". MANY THANKS TO YOU AND KEEP MOVING FORWARD AMANDA. Your ideas are amazing and charming your garden is inspiring to your followers.
I am in zone 6 missouri but I love watching your videos. My goals changed this year we had a house fire in August. So in an apt temp. I have a patio. Will get back in the house by late spring. I do have acess to my garden. I am using winter sowing to start my seeds this year and direct sowing later in may. Gardening on a budget makes so much sense.
@@barbarafegley5566 I'm so sorry to hear that you had a fire at your home. I truly understand. I was displaced from my home in Mississippi due to a tornado. Now I'm gardening at my condominium. I'm glad you will eventually get back to your home.
Happy New Year!🎉 I'm a thrifty gardener as well and love to see space saving, time saving and money saving tips. Something that has saved me money from time to time is my local community of garders within my church and neighborhood. I've shared and had shered with me, seeds, cuttings/rootings, and leftover supplies. The most useful things like knowledge from failures and successes have been the most helpful! Keep doing what you are doing and best of luck for 2025!
This year I want to divide my yard/gardens into daily work "zones" Each day I check the designated zone and take care of that area. It may need some weeding, mulching or fertilizing etc and the next day is a different zone. I made only 6 zones so if there is a day I cannot take care of the daily zone, I can make it up by having an empty zone day. I think it will take a while to get comfortable and automatic with this plan but it will reduce my work in the garden to small do-able chunks and by the end of the week I have taken care of all the gardens. Hope it works for me!
:I am so excited to go along with you through your videos . Thank you for the reminder thats it's ok to fail. Some times I get myself to upset if it's not perfect . Now I'm like ( it is what it is ) lol . Thanks to your relaxed attitude it's has helped me .
I get upset at myself for not being able to do things in the garden as well. I do beat myself up over things not being perfect. It's nice to see I'm not the only one who does this
I totally agree with you on learning comes from my failures. And speaking on freezing vegetables, we just ate the last of the purple hull peas I grew in the spring/summer, so delicious. On the composting, I was actually doing that today. I cleaned out my chrysanthemum bed and have leaves all over my grass. I use my push mower which has a grass catcher bag to roll over all that stuff and it cuts it up and then I dump it in a composting pile. The first bag of ground up stuff I did, I stood the bag up against my storage building, forgot about it. The bag got rained in several times before I remembered to dump it out and Wala! It started composting right in the bag.
@@shesamadgardener Yea, living in the woods I have stuff laying all around me that I could mulchup with the mower. But I have to have the mind set and energy for it. 🙄
Amanda I find simplifying this process is best. I compost all my leaves by putting them in a large pile after bagging with my mower. It provides the best mulch. I know your situation is different but garden debris of all sorts could be used. Happy composting 😊
This last summer marked the second year of my garden. Instead of harvesting flowers, I spent all my time pulling weeds and mulching. I’m hoping all that work will mean less burdensome toil in 2025. I want to enjoy my flowers. That’s goal #1 for the coming year. I’m also planting more roses. Relying less on annuals might also reduce the workload. Fingers crossed.
I just started a 3x3x3 plastic/resin compost bin this year. I am trying to do cold composting, means no turning or following the green and brown ratios. I just dump my clippings in it, not a lot food scrapes. I bury my raw food scrapes under 6" of soil where I am not actively producing anything. My new year goal is to put my Persimmon tree in the ground, make berry patches (2 dedicated beds) and of course budget gardening. I saved a lot of seeds this year 😊!
Thanks Amanda for a really inspiring video 🥰I also need to garden on a budget as a single 69 year old female and I also like to try and do a lot of the construction myself !! So your content is really relevant to me. I only bought my bungalow 2 years ago so I’ve got lots of work to do. Like you I am trying to get rid of my grass and have more flower beds. Will be watching all your videos in 2025 wishing you and your family good health and happiness 🥰
Amanda I live in a neighborhood as well and have some similar concerns over compost. For years, I kept bins I bought from the big box store and drilled holes in. I turned it weekly and made sure I had the correct ratio. As I am aging, I’m more a lazy composter and chop and drop or bury scraps and clippings in deep holes in the garden. I have a spot near some trees at the back of my home where I am putting veggie scraps and non diseased clippings. The jury is still out on that one. It might take end of summer to see results. Turning the compost in the bins was just too much on my back so if you go with a bin, you might want to choose one that has a turning handle.
I'd definitely encourage you to start composting. A friend of mine uses two galvanized trash buckets with holes drilled in. She's also in a neighborhood, and it works well for her.
Thank you for always sharing hints and seed guidance. I saw this "hack", which I don't usually do, You need sandwich bags, and you place soil & seeds in each pouch. Then you hang them from a dowl, so the bags are hanging. Sort of like the milk carton planting. I will let you know. Happy and Healthy New Year to you and your wonderful Family.
My goals are spending less on the garden and growing more flowers for a summer/fall cutting garden as I have pollen allergies in the spring. Also I am cutting back on things I don’t really eat much of and expanding on crops that are favorites like strawberries and potatoes. I tried sweet potatoes last year but they were a lot of work with digging and curing. Want to keep it simple.
Cheers for a great 2025 garden season!! I enjoy watching your videos! The last 2 years I really got into seed starting. I do cut flower style and some that I can use in container combos, it's fun to challenge myself by putting together containers that I grew from seed! And that also helps with cost!
Hi Amanda! I really enjoyed this video! My goals are, one, to get more organized with the garden and that goes related to the one you have on the budget. The second is move a couple of small trees to add some sun to those beds. That will be a great undertaking… so I will called good if I accomplish these goals!!! 😊 Have a Happy New Year!!!🎉
So very glad you and your family are okay ,here in Canada l seen on the news that Texas had horrific tornadoes l was concerned hope you have a Happy New Year Amanda!
I would recommend just starting a pile in a chicken wire 3 sided set up. I cover mine with a black tarp and it looks neat. No smell if correct amount of browns and greens.
On the retaining wall question: my property is on a slope with a weird dip in the middle, so watering was always an issue. I decided years ago to create a low retaining wall running in swoops around that dip, which is now a flat stretch of ground with a fountain as focal point in the middle. That wall is now about 200 feet long, height varies from 2 to 4 feet. I could not afford to hire the job out so I knew I would have to build it slowly over time as time and money allowed. That made me realise I would need to choose a material that would be available to me over a few years and so that meant retaining blocks from HD. Not the prettiest material but ultimately that wall is mostly hidden by plants cascading down from the bed above or growing up from the bed in front (no grass!!). I built that wall in 6 foot sections hauling the blocks in my car.
Really excited to see your irrigation video as that is a big goal for me. I also need to be patient with my formerly shade garden to figure out what really needs to be moved. That requires fine tuning my transplanting skills!
Start composting it's good to have soil when you need it. One this that i will share from my experience is that i used to turn it. It's a lot of work and hard on your body. If you don't have yime to commit to that choose a different system. I just pile my scraps take a shovel and bury the fresh stuff with the compost. I have seen people take 20 gallon garbage bins and drill holes in the bottom for airflow and to let the excess moisture out. Then they just roll the bin Every now and then. I'm thinking of switching to this route. Also, i have never had issues with my pile smelling.
I hope to grow luffa next summer. I have a coworker who makes soaps and she wants to try to Shred some to put into bars. I have store bought little gourds and now I want to make a fall wreath once they dry!
Happy new year! My goals are growing perennials from seed to add variety (lots of natives) to my garden for the pollinators and extending my beds with what I grow! I'm also installing a butterfly garden, maybe a rain garden depending on time and funds. Thank you for your videos, love you!
Very inspiring. My 2025 goals are to plant more natives and bird and pollinator friendly plants. I want to create a stumpery in a shady moist area using ferns, mosses and other shade lovers around stumps from an enormous old oak tree that died. Continue to refine a shady rain garden and 2 full sun beds. More propagation and dividing of perennials. Since I have a very shady yard I will plant fullsun cut flowers in grow bags that can be moved.
My plan: 1. Stay on budget by selling/trading my extra dahlia tubers, asking for trades in my Facebook garden group before purchasing plants, and using the free compost and mulch from my town. 2. Improve the edging around my flower beds. 3. Figure out what on earth will look good under my Little Free Library. 4. Remember to fertilize regularly... not just when the plants look sad.
Love how you do this video, helps so much! I have two main goals this season, 1. Finally completing the west side of my house that hasn't been done lol and 2. Setting up some type of pergola over the hot tub area in our back patio. I also need to do better with adding evergreens or winter interest in my garden. Excited to come along with you in 2025! Happy New Year to you and your family!
In Master Food Preservers they warn about sponges in the kitchen as they are bacteria breeding grounds. Instead they recommended using wash clothes, a fresh one every day.
Amanda, I have 3 Mantis green compost bins on wheels. I needed bins that were contained because of rodents. I checked the current price and they have doubled. Yikes!
Both! Gonna dig up the grass towards the front of the border where I will have more plants and use the cardboard method at the back where I will have more established shrubs.
2025 goals: reduce mulch runoff by planting in key locations, more native plants, address most visible bed on street that has some damage from deer and snow load.
Love watching ❤. Great planning and goals for the new gardening season.
Amanda, you are one of my favourite gardeners that I watch regularly here on YT. You have a wonderful, warm personality! I truly admire you staying true to yourself as well as your dedication, your creativity, your relatability, your considerateness, and sharing what works for you and your garden. You inspire so many of us (myself included) to embrace gardening on a budget as well as sticking to practical techniques to create beautiful spaces. You don’t let yourself get pressured-you listen to what works for you, go at your own pace, and you stay realistic-I totally commend that. I love your seed-starting content and seeing the whole process of sowing to outdoor planting😊 For my new year goals, they resonate with yours in that I’m once again focusing on seed-starting in order to be economical, and putting a focus on consuming less overall when possible. Thank you for all that you do! Your time and effort doesn’t go unnoticed! Happy New Year!-I look forward to seeing your gardening adventures in 2025👏🏼☺️!
It's so awesome to hear you're focusing on seed starting too!
I’m so glad you don’t have a channel like everyone else. Your channel is so much better than the rest because you are real. You are easy to relate to. I can’t wait for the new garden you’re going to be creating!
Thank you so much! It means a lot to me that you appreciate my style.
One of the things I love about you is that you don’t fall into the sponsorships. Seems like most channels I follow once they get a sponsor they are just never the same. It ends up being more promotional. How do I trust that that is a great product when TH-camrs are getting paid to say it. Stay true to yourself. I am a zone 6b/7a but you are one of my favorites.
For 2025, i want to expand my irrigation. I am spending too much time hand watering and moving sprinklers. I also want to include more evergreen bushes and trees. Winters are long and I need green. I am also starting seeds for cut flowers I hope to sell to add money to my gardening budget. Good luck in 2025!
Thanks for your support! I really appreciate you sticking with me! And your goals sounds great! I’m especially intrigued by the evergreens!
I have been using an Aerobin for composting for almost 10 years. It holds a lot more than you would think. Items go in the top and compost is harvested from the bottom hatch. It’s neat and tidy, takes up less space than a 3-bin system, and has a cover to protect from foragers (although the rats can chew through anything short of galvanized steel!) if you mix items in the right ratio, you can hot compost the top layers and then it shrinks down so you can add more on top. You can also just throw items in as they are available and let it cold compost. I’ve been happy with mine. It’s a great solution for urban composting.
Also, keeping the right ratio of greens to browns means no smell. If you do ever get any bad smell add browns (paper, cardboard, dried up plant material) give it a stir and in a couple of hours the smell is gone.
Fortunately, I haven’t had any issues with the smell. I always have a bag of leaves or shredded paper to layer over my kitchen scraps, which also keeps the critters out of the bin. My biggest learning curve was keeping the bin wet enough. The first year, I never added water and it stayed too dry. Now I pay more attention and add water to keep it moist. It’s definitely a bit of a learning curve but well worth it.
Ooo, thanks for this suggestion!
You are the only Amanda the Mad Gardener. I enjoy your content but I mostly enjoy you. I’m glad you realize it’s not a competition. Some of those other channels have gone off in different directions and I don’t watch them anymore.
Thank you for watching and for your kind words!
I really appreciate your outlook towards your viewers. You seem to understand that some of us are just trying to plant beautiful plants in our yards, no matter how much space we may have to do that. And we may also be on a budget. I live in a condo and I'm 77 yrs old. I don't need a lot of anything . I also love the fact that you do a lot yourself, which encourages us to try to do things ourselves. Keep up the good gardeningg❤
You are absolutely right! It's all about enjoying the process.
Growing plants from seeds, propagation, and division is so awe inspiring and cost effective! For the first time, I'm trying winter sowing seeds in milk jugs.🤗 Thanks for helping me have the knowledge and confidence to try new things on my gardening journey!
That's awesome! I love seeing people try new things in their gardens!
Thank you Amanda for bringing gardening down to the basics. It helps us to also realize that a garden is achievable with a little work up front, and working with what we have.
You’re very welcome, I’m so glad it helps!
I appreciate your honesty and candidness about reality and your channel. I watch you because of that exact point. I followed others that started off small and now pay THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO MOVE A STONE🥴🤦😑!
Once again, that is not my reality. I do not "hate" on people who upgrade, change, improve, make it to the "top" so to speak or whatever the case may be but real is real. MOST OF US do not have help and have to budget. It is refreshing to see someone that is gardening on the same level and shows success and failures and not always "TIDY".
MANY THANKS TO YOU AND KEEP MOVING FORWARD AMANDA.
Your ideas are amazing and charming your garden is inspiring to your followers.
Aww thanks! Yes, we all have different gardens and different goals!
I am in zone 6 missouri but I love watching your videos.
My goals changed this year we had a house fire in August. So in an apt temp. I have a patio.
Will get back in the house by late spring. I do have acess to my garden. I am using winter sowing to start my seeds this year and direct sowing later in may.
Gardening on a budget makes so much sense.
@@barbarafegley5566 I'm so sorry to hear that you had a fire at your home. I truly understand. I was displaced from my home in Mississippi due to a tornado. Now I'm gardening at my condominium. I'm glad you will eventually get back to your home.
I am so sorry to hear about your house fire, but I'm glad you're going to be able to get back into your garden soon!
Oh yay! More grass coming out! I've been working on that for 3 yrs. and I'm almost there. It's so satisfying.
It’s amazing what you can accomplish with time and effort!
Happy New Year!🎉 I'm a thrifty gardener as well and love to see space saving, time saving and money saving tips. Something that has saved me money from time to time is my local community of garders within my church and neighborhood. I've shared and had shered with me, seeds, cuttings/rootings, and leftover supplies. The most useful things like knowledge from failures and successes have been the most helpful! Keep doing what you are doing and best of luck for 2025!
That is a great idea to connect with your local gardening community! I could definitely a better job with that!
This year I want to divide my yard/gardens into daily work "zones" Each day I check the designated zone and take care of that area. It may need some weeding, mulching or fertilizing etc and the next day is a different zone. I made only 6 zones so if there is a day I cannot take care of the daily zone, I can make it up by having an empty zone day. I think it will take a while to get comfortable and automatic with this plan but it will reduce my work in the garden to small do-able chunks and by the end of the week I have taken care of all the gardens. Hope it works for me!
I love the idea of zoning your garden!
:I am so excited to go along with you through your videos . Thank you for the reminder thats it's ok to fail. Some times I get myself to upset if it's not perfect . Now I'm like ( it is what it is ) lol . Thanks to your relaxed attitude it's has helped me .
It's so important to remember that it's okay to not be perfect!
I get upset at myself for not being able to do things in the garden as well. I do beat myself up over things not being perfect. It's nice to see I'm not the only one who does this
I totally agree with you on learning comes from my failures. And speaking on freezing vegetables, we just ate the last of the purple hull peas I grew in the spring/summer, so delicious. On the composting, I was actually doing that today. I cleaned out my chrysanthemum bed and have leaves all over my grass. I use my push mower which has a grass catcher bag to roll over all that stuff and it cuts it up and then I dump it in a composting pile. The first bag of ground up stuff I did, I stood the bag up against my storage building, forgot about it. The bag got rained in several times before I remembered to dump it out and Wala! It started composting right in the bag.
Very cool on the bag method!
@@shesamadgardener Yea, living in the woods I have stuff laying all around me that I could mulchup with the mower. But I have to have the mind set and energy for it. 🙄
Amanda I find simplifying this process is best. I compost all my leaves by putting them in a large pile after bagging with my mower. It provides the best mulch. I know your situation is different but garden debris of all sorts could be used. Happy composting 😊
That’s a great point!
Great goals! Composting and irrigation will save so much time and waste. Good luck in 2025!
Thanks, I'm hoping for a great year!
This last summer marked the second year of my garden. Instead of harvesting flowers, I spent all my time pulling weeds and mulching. I’m hoping all that work will mean less burdensome toil in 2025. I want to enjoy my flowers. That’s goal #1 for the coming year. I’m also planting more roses. Relying less on annuals might also reduce the workload. Fingers crossed.
It's so worth it to have a beautiful garden! Fingers crossed for a more enjoyable 2025!
Great video! Love all of your plans for 2025!!!!! Great Gardening!
Happy Gardening to you too!
I just started a 3x3x3 plastic/resin compost bin this year. I am trying to do cold composting, means no turning or following the green and brown ratios. I just dump my clippings in it, not a lot food scrapes. I bury my raw food scrapes under 6" of soil where I am not actively producing anything. My new year goal is to put my Persimmon tree in the ground, make berry patches (2 dedicated beds) and of course budget gardening. I saved a lot of seeds this year 😊!
Thanks for sharing about the composting … that seems like a manageable solution!
Thanks Amanda for a really inspiring video 🥰I also need to garden on a budget as a single 69 year old female and I also like to try and do a lot of the construction myself !! So your content is really relevant to me. I only bought my bungalow 2 years ago so I’ve got lots of work to do. Like you I am trying to get rid of my grass and have more flower beds. Will be watching all your videos in 2025 wishing you and your family good health and happiness 🥰
Totally understand the budget viewpoint! And go for it on building yourself 💪💪💪
Amanda I live in a neighborhood as well and have some similar concerns over compost. For years, I kept bins I bought from the big box store and drilled holes in. I turned it weekly and made sure I had the correct ratio. As I am aging, I’m more a lazy composter and chop and drop or bury scraps and clippings in deep holes in the garden. I have a spot near some trees at the back of my home where I am putting veggie scraps and non diseased clippings. The jury is still out on that one. It might take end of summer to see results. Turning the compost in the bins was just too much on my back so if you go with a bin, you might want to choose one that has a turning handle.
I hear ya on the turning compost! I'm all for low-maintenance methods.
I can’t wait to see your new garden. You are an inspiration. Thank you! 😊
Thank you so much! I can't wait to garden with you all this year!
Hi Amanda..looking forward to a new garden season
Me too! Can't wait to see what we all grow this year!
I'd definitely encourage you to start composting. A friend of mine uses two galvanized trash buckets with holes drilled in. She's also in a neighborhood, and it works well for her.
Great idea!
Listening to your garden goals while I up pot my seedlings.😊
I’m so excited to grow with you this year!
Thank you for always sharing hints and seed guidance. I saw this "hack", which I don't usually do, You need sandwich bags, and you place soil & seeds in each pouch. Then you hang them from a dowl, so the bags are hanging. Sort of like the milk carton planting. I will let you know. Happy and Healthy New Year to you and your wonderful Family.
That's a great idea! I'm excited to hear how it goes for you.
My goals are spending less on the garden and growing more flowers for a summer/fall cutting garden as I have pollen allergies in the spring. Also I am cutting back on things I don’t really eat much of and expanding on crops that are favorites like strawberries and potatoes. I tried sweet potatoes last year but they were a lot of work with digging and curing. Want to keep it simple.
Good idea on growing more cut flowers for the fall! I also cut out crops that were a struggle for me like tomatoes.
Happy New Year, Amanda. All the best in 2025.
Same to you!
Cheers for a great 2025 garden season!! I enjoy watching your videos! The last 2 years I really got into seed starting. I do cut flower style and some that I can use in container combos, it's fun to challenge myself by putting together containers that I grew from seed! And that also helps with cost!
I'm with you on that! Seed starting is one of my favorite things to do.
I just love your channel! Thanks for keeping it real!
You’re very welcome! I’m so glad you enjoy it!
May your 2025 be a good gardening year
Same to you!
Hi Amanda! I really enjoyed this video! My goals are, one, to get more organized with the garden and that goes related to the one you have on the budget. The second is move a couple of small trees to add some sun to those beds. That will be a great undertaking… so I will called good if I accomplish these goals!!! 😊 Have a Happy New Year!!!🎉
Those are some great goals - I can’t wait to see how they come together!
So very glad you and your family are okay ,here in Canada l seen on the news that Texas had horrific tornadoes l was concerned hope you have a Happy New Year Amanda!
Thank you so much for your concern! We are all okay!
I would recommend just starting a pile in a chicken wire 3 sided set up. I cover mine with a black tarp and it looks neat. No smell if correct amount of browns and greens.
I’m leaning that way as well … that process seems simpler in my head.
@shesamadgardener low cost to get started and easy to fix if you don't like it.
On the retaining wall question: my property is on a slope with a weird dip in the middle, so watering was always an issue. I decided years ago to create a low retaining wall running in swoops around that dip, which is now a flat stretch of ground with a fountain as focal point in the middle. That wall is now about 200 feet long, height varies from 2 to 4 feet. I could not afford to hire the job out so I knew I would have to build it slowly over time as time and money allowed. That made me realise I would need to choose a material that would be available to me over a few years and so that meant retaining blocks from HD. Not the prettiest material but ultimately that wall is mostly hidden by plants cascading down from the bed above or growing up from the bed in front (no grass!!). I built that wall in 6 foot sections hauling the blocks in my car.
That is an excellent point of having the material available throughout the long process … thanks for pointing that out!
Happy New Year Amanda. I will be watching every video that you post. I learn a lot!
You're in for a treat this year!
Thank you for giving me the confidence to start my very first cut flower garden this year in central Texas! I love your channel so much
You are very welcome! I hope you have a wonderful first year!
Really excited to see your irrigation video as that is a big goal for me. I also need to be patient with my formerly shade garden to figure out what really needs to be moved. That requires fine tuning my transplanting skills!
I love that you're taking the time to figure out what works best for your garden!
♥️🌹♥️ Happy New Year 🎉🎉🎉
Happy New Year to you too! 🎉
Start composting it's good to have soil when you need it. One this that i will share from my experience is that i used to turn it. It's a lot of work and hard on your body. If you don't have yime to commit to that choose a different system. I just pile my scraps take a shovel and bury the fresh stuff with the compost. I have seen people take 20 gallon garbage bins and drill holes in the bottom for airflow and to let the excess moisture out. Then they just roll the bin Every now and then. I'm thinking of switching to this route. Also, i have never had issues with my pile smelling.
Thanks for sharing your composting tips! I’ve been thinking about the bin method as it would help keep pests out as well.
This is why I love your channel. You are real to the born! It's okay to fel,l It's okay to change your mind! Love it!❤
So glad you love the channel! 💕
Happy New Year. Thanks for the inspiratory goals! Moved to Texas zone 8 last year and your videos have been a great help!
I'm so glad they've been helpful! Texas zone 8 is such an awesome growing zone!
I’ve loved watching you grow and evolve as a TH-camr. You’re very authentic and true to yourself ❤
That means a lot to me, thank you!
I usually do things willy-nilly, I love the idea of actually having a plan 😂! YES, I definitely need a budget!
Sometimes Willy-nilly creates great stuff!
I just compost leaves, grass cuttings and garden clippings. I don’t use food products to avoid critter visits.
That's a great way to keep the critters away!
I hope to grow luffa next summer. I have a coworker who makes soaps and she wants to try to
Shred some to put into bars.
I have store bought little gourds and now I want to make a fall wreath once they dry!
Luffa is such a fun and useful plant!
Yes, pls show us ur entire drip irrigation system and how u set it up.
Will do!
I was also thinking about a low budget gardening this year.
I’m pretty exited to focus on cost savings.
Happy new year! My goals are growing perennials from seed to add variety (lots of natives) to my garden for the pollinators and extending my beds with what I grow! I'm also installing a butterfly garden, maybe a rain garden depending on time and funds. Thank you for your videos, love you!
That's such a fantastic plan! I'm excited to see what you create this year!
Can you tell me what a rain garden is?? Thanx
Very inspiring. My 2025 goals are to plant more natives and bird and pollinator friendly plants. I want to create a stumpery in a shady moist area using ferns, mosses and other shade lovers around stumps from an enormous old oak tree that died. Continue to refine a shady rain garden and 2 full sun beds. More propagation and dividing of perennials. Since I have a very shady yard I will plant fullsun cut flowers in grow bags that can be moved.
I love the idea of a stumpery!
Happy New Year🎉
Happy New Year!
Thank you bunches
You’re very welcome!
My mom use to propagate roses...and I'd like to see them and rose of sharon
Yes! I want to propagate my America climbing rose to be able to cover more of my shade garden!
My plan: 1. Stay on budget by selling/trading my extra dahlia tubers, asking for trades in my Facebook garden group before purchasing plants, and using the free compost and mulch from my town. 2. Improve the edging around my flower beds. 3. Figure out what on earth will look good under my Little Free Library. 4. Remember to fertilize regularly... not just when the plants look sad.
Those are great goals! I especially love the idea of asking for trades in your garden group.
So Nice Video ❤❤
Thanks for watching!
Hi Amanda. Happy New Year. 🥳 Looking forward to your goals for 2025. 🤗
Happy New Year to you too! 🥳
Happy New Year! Looking forward to seeing the projects you come up with this year 😊
Happy New Year to you too! I can’t wait to share my garden plans with you all!
Love how you do this video, helps so much! I have two main goals this season, 1. Finally completing the west side of my house that hasn't been done lol and 2. Setting up some type of pergola over the hot tub area in our back patio. I also need to do better with adding evergreens or winter interest in my garden. Excited to come along with you in 2025! Happy New Year to you and your family!
Good luck with your pergola and evergreens, I’m sure they will be stunning! 😊
In Master Food Preservers they warn about sponges in the kitchen as they are bacteria breeding grounds. Instead they recommended using wash clothes, a fresh one every day.
I had no idea! I'll keep that in mind.
Ty
💚💚💚
Would love to see what your petunias and geranium that you recently sowed
That video is coming out on the 2nd!
💗
💚💚💚
❤❤❤❤
💚💚💚
Morning
Good morning!
❤
💚💚💚
🌞
💚💚💚
🎉
💚💚💚
☺ 💚🌳
💚💚💚
Amanda, I have 3 Mantis green compost bins on wheels. I needed bins that were contained because of rodents. I checked the current price and they have doubled. Yikes!
Yikes! Maybe I can diy a similar solution!
My goal next year is to move my hydrangeas
I’m moving a hydrangea this year as well!
🗣️ 3 BAY SYSTEM…
Good to know!
Are you digging up the grass or just putting cardboard and landscape fabris?
Both! Gonna dig up the grass towards the front of the border where I will have more plants and use the cardboard method at the back where I will have more established shrubs.
🪴👩🌾💐🌷🌻
💚💚💚
2025 goals: reduce mulch runoff by planting in key locations, more native plants, address most visible bed on street that has some damage from deer and snow load.
Those are some great goals for your garden!
⚾️
💚💚💚
❤❤❤
💚💚💚
❤
💚💚💚
❤
💚💚💚