Anniversary - Five Years of Growth

The flower for the fifth year anniversary is Daisy. I purchased a pot of Gerber Daisies from my local Home Depot for less than $5 to create a few fairy gardens for the occasion, similar to last year's Hydrangea purchase.

Jumping right into this year in review, I think the biggest contribution to my boost in subscribers is my food garden. My most viewed videos on YouTube in the last year are connected to my subscription boxes and food garden. In the last year alone, I've gained 153 subscribers, putting me at 255 total. So many more people are interested in food gardens in general than fairy gardens. My participation in challenges on YouTube has also boosted my views quite a bit.

YouTube has become the most prominent effort in my life since it's the easiest to interact with my followers. It has also opened me up to new content by participating in challenges; put forth by other YouTube content creators and myself. In the last year, I've received over 17K views on my channel which means I nearly doubled my views in the past year alone (28k total)! 

I've become very active on my Instagram account, and this time when I say "I," I mean it! My granddaughter taught me how to upload content to Instagram on my own and I've made sure to post something new every two or three days. I currently have 114 followers on that platform.

While we haven't managed to find someone to help create a professional website, falling through on our goal to create a large contest, that hasn't stopped us from creating a few small contests here on the blog and on YouTube.

This past year has been full of success. We managed to host one live Fairy Garden Class at Sunshine Grower's Nursery in January. I may no longer subscribe to the products that allowed me to do unboxing videos, but my fairy gardens are still home to items from My Fairy Crate and the food garden is thriving thanks to seeds from Seed Bank Box. I continue to share hauls, fairy gardens, DIY paint and lighting projects, and food garden updates. The newest addition to my lineup has been taking the food I've grown into the kitchen to make some delicious meals. My granddaughter and I helped to make and can jam for the first time which is great skill to have for a gardener. Another first for the past year is trying out the Three Sisters growing method for corn, beans and squash. I hope to focus on the edible portion of my yard more in the future but promise I will still be creating fairy gardens along the way; I've been able to incorporate fairies among some of the edible garden, bringing the two worlds together.

This year there has been, and will be, a new baby born in the fairy garden each month. And on a personal note, two more grandkids have been added to the family! My knee surgery and recovery were both a success and Mother Nature was very kind with all the rain she brought to my area.

A few months ago I began a new raised bed in the edible area of my yard, but I'm not done yet - I plan to add more raised beds within the next year. Not long after the raised bed was put in, my birthday present arrived; Green Stalk garden tower! I've already planted strawberries, they're thriving and they will remain in this tower for the duration of their life. I'm already looking forward to next year when I can buy another tower! Look forward to a future post delving deeper into this new addition to my garden.

And now, a look into the future. I plan to create a Tea Garden, growing plants to brew tea right from the garden. Expanding the food garden to include more raised beds, using mulch and minerals to build up my soil to help my garden thrive, and continuing progress on the food forest are my long term goals. And of course, continuing to share more recipes using food from my garden since I've barely dipped my toe in as of now.

WE'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU

grandmasEFG@gmail.com

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