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.

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Four Years Together

Here we are at yet another anniversary post. One more year gone by with more experience under our belt and exciting things ahead. The fourth anniversary flower is the hydrangea which is what I used to create the banner above and the garden below. Unfortunately, mother nature didn't realize this week was so important to me because she decided to scorch my lovely anniversary flowers with temperatures reaching 112 degrees. 

Based on last year's review, here are some numbers for comparison. In the last year I've made 108 blog posts, 40 of which were published last month alone thanks to my Garden A Day Challenge. June 2018 saw more posts published than in either 2016 or 2017, each of those years only having 46 posts in them!

Google + is still pushing along with 544 followers. Since last year, my YouTube channel has gained over 50 uploads (124 videos) and the views have more than doubled at just over 10.5k! I'm pleased to say that my YouTube channel now has cleared the 100 subscribers mark. The most viewed post in the last year was Season's Greetings in December with 189 views which has a long journey to cactch up to the overall most viewed video from M&M Nursery back in 2015 with 578 views. Since last year, my granddaughter helped to get us connected on social media including Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. I began pushing these accounts in May 2018 and currently have 17 Twitter followers, 40 Pinterest followers and 83 Instagram followers.

Numbers aside, we had many accomplishments in the past year. Most recently was the Garden A Day Challenge, my first attempt at anything like this. I feel like this challenge did a great deal for me personally (cleaning up my garden and allowing myself to be creative quickly and cheaply) as well as helped my online presence (social media numbers grew significantly). 

The blog has seen very little of the food garden - which will change - but my YouTube views have really seen an improvement thanks to my edible garden updates. I also attribute a rise in YouTube viewership to a few of my new monthly features including my shopping hauls and unboxing videos. I still don't understand why "the haul" is such a big deal to people but I'm glad my grandson told me they were popular and we have been able to benefit from it.

On the topic of monthlies, we have been doing a DIY fairy garden class each month for quite some time and have slowly begun to add new staples to the blog which I hope you will look forward to. The monthly list includes fairy garden class, My Fairy Folks - a visit to one of my follower's garden each month, Gifts for the Garden - a look at the gifts I receive from followers and family each month, unboxing posts (currently Seed Bank Box and My Fairy Crate which may change in the future), shopping hauls, food garden updates and garden projects that will including repainting and lights as a main feature. Whew!

That's all quite a lot of accomplishments but according to last year's review, our biggest goal was to put together a contest. Unfortunately, we were unable to make that happen in the last year, however you may be surprised to know that planning has been underway for a while! There is a lot that goes in to something like that (especially technical web type stuff that I don't know about), but actual progress is being made on making it a reality. We are hoping to begin the contest before the end of this year and will reveal details soon.

What I'd currently like to announce is the fact that my blog has it's own url now! In March I purchased the name GardenWithGrandma.com and if you type that into your browser now, it will bring you right back to this blog. In the future, it will host our contest and blog posts. I felt this was an appropriate move since it would allow us to possibly make money through ads (which will help continue to fund all things fairy garden and food garden related), allow us to host the fairy garden contest and anything else we'd like to do in the future all under a website name that is easy to remember and access.

If you can believe it, I think our goals for the year ahead of us are even bigger! The previously mentioned contest is our biggest and scariest goal! This is uncharted territory for myself and any of my grandchildren but we are determined to make this happen. I was inspired to do this contest since the one I used to participate in (The Magic Onion) has not been active for years. I felt that there were a lot of people like me who were just hoping to find a similar contest and decided to take it upon myself to just create one. Also on the horizon for the next year is expanding the food garden and adding new fairy garden areas. I plan to make the front garden more kid friendly since my great-grandchildren are getting older and I'd love to have them over more. I plan to visit more local stores and nurseries to showcase fairy garden accessories and hopefully add this to my list of monthly features. 

There is talk of getting the fairy garden class back out to an actual location, allowing me to meet up with My Fairy Folks and have a lovely morning of creativity. November 2015 was the last time a physical class was held at Sunshine Growers Nursery in Yucaipa, CA. It is a favorite nursery of mine and they have increased the stock of fairy decor as well as miniature plants since then, so I think we will be setting ourselves up for success upon our return. We have not set a date just yet, but if you'd like to sign up for our email list to stay in the loop, please send me an email with the subject "Fairy Garden Class" to grandmasefg@gmail.com and feel free to make class theme suggestions. We are hoping to get this started before the end of 2018.

My immediate future holds a day trip this week with my granddaughter to participate in a Fairy Garden Class hosted elsewhere. Follow me on Instagram to keep track of Thursday's events and look forward to my review on the location and event later this month. If you have any suggestions for me or would like to say hi, my contact and social media information is at the bottom of this post.

Finally, I'll leave you with this photo of Prince Finn Mac Fidaig, seated in front of our anniversary hydrangea with an inviting setting for tea.

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May Celebrations

The month of May is typically very busy for me but this one was particularly special. 

The first event was Mother's Day. I received some wonderful gifts from all three of my children. Above is the gift from my daughter; flowers, chocolate covered strawberries, a card and a reversible pillow. Below is the opposite side of the pillow.

This decorative light post with a planter at the base was given to me by my eldest son and is actually a solar light! I'm very excited to put it in my yard and plan to make a fairy garden at the base.

This plant was gifted to me by my youngest son. I've had this plant in the past and it didn't do too well which was disappointing so I'm glad I get this second chance at it. Below is the flower bloom after a few weeks.

The second big event in May was the anniversary of marriage to my husband. This year we celebrated 50 years together and were surrounded by friends and family at a lovely surprise brunch. Above is a photo from left to right of my niece and her first son, my husband, my granddaughter, my son and myself.

Finally, to round out May, I celebrated my birthday! I received some wonderful gifts that I plan to put in my garden soon; some fairy accessories from my daughter and a fairy house from one of my granddaughters. I also received a few gift cards for local restaurants. It was an absolutely wonderful month!

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Anniversary: The Third Year Is A Charm

Oh my goodness, it's time to celebrate another year already! As of tomorrow (July 9), this blog is turning 3 years old! Can you believe it? Last year's review mentioned Wikipedia's anniversary flowers - I remember looking at the list and being excited for this year because the third anniversary flower is my favorite; the Sunflower! Here's one of my beautiful sunflowers from last year's bloom since I don't have any blooming yet this year, but you bet your bottom that they're in the ground, working their magic. 

Now, lets get to the progress we've made in the last year here at Grandma's Enchanted Fairy Garden. My Google+ followers haven't gone up much (and I still can't figure out how to see my Google+ views), but my YouTube views have increased by 1,979 in the last year to bring me to a total of 3,126. This means that I more than doubled my YouTube views in the last year. That's wonderful! I know that wouldn't be possible without My Fairy Folks sharing my videos with friends and family, so thank you very much! I am just shy of 70 videos uploaded to my channel.

Speaking of My Fairy Followers, I want to thank those of you who have shared your own creations. Lets look back at all of them.

Joy. C

Refurbished Gate

Arizona

Riverside, CA

Again, thank you to all of my followers. I appreciate every one of you, even if you haven't sent in any pictures or made any comments; just knowing there are eyes on my blog and YouTube (represented by views) keeps me going. There are so many of you all over the world. Some of you might even hail from the following locations, represented in my vacation series of fairy gardens.

Ensenada, Mexico

Hawaii

These two vacation-inspired gardens, Ensenada and Hawaii, were created within the last year and helped me achieve one of the goals I set for myself in last year's review. There are also a few more that I have planned and that you can look forward to in the future including Yellowstone, Alaska, Williams Arizona and Cabo San Lucas.

I have made many posts about Fairy Garden Classes, a few that took place in public but the majority being just tutorials. Some were based on a holiday theme or a monetary goal. I want to expand these tutorials to include child specific activities and make this blog even more family-friendly.

With all the successes we've had in the past year, there is one that slipped through our fingers and that would be the Gnome wedding. Things in the real world got in the way of making this event come out in November (which was what last year's review slated it for). It was decided that we would just move the date forward another year. Between you and I (and the rest of the internet), the pictures were all taken and in the system but my granddaughter's (who helps me write this blog) wedding was a priority.

With that being said, I had time to do some thinking about the goals for the next year of our blog. One thing that really popped out to me was a contest. There's only been one contest here and the product of that was the name My Fairy Folks. In that same vein, I want to continue to celebrate My Fairy Folks, their creativity and promote my blog. With all that being said, we have plans here to start our own miniature garden contest that will last a whole year! You will be allowed to enter with multiple miniature gardens (maybe one for each season!) and have your friends and family help by voting. Prizes aren't decided yet and neither is a start date, but I will keep you updated. I really want to make sure there are at least two winning categories - people's choice and best of show. I'm very excited about this and hope you are too!

Myleene and sunflowers, 2015

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An Enchantier Anniversary

Last year around this time we did a fairy garden recap and goal outline in celebration of our first anniversary. Now that July is coming to a close, it's time again to reflect on the past year and celebrate the blog's second anniversary. Wikipedia suggests the second anniversary gift, in terms of flowers, is Lily of the Valley. Although I was unable to grow this plant, I would like to introduce you to a new fairy who's been seen around my garden the last few months. This is Lily (how apropos, right?).

I attribute my great health to the five years of gardening under my belt and we are that much closer to the same amount of years for the blog which is very exciting. This time last year I had 316 followers which has now increased to 515; a growth just shy of 200 followers!

My Google+ views last year were 136,380. Unfortunately I have discovered I can no longer access that information (at least in the way I used to) but I know the last time I was able to check, the number was upwards of 250,000 which is an increase of over 110,000! I used to find joy in checking the number steadily rise, so if any of you know of a way I can access that information, I would love to update this post (and regain my daily habit).

 One year ago I was so proud of my 11 videos on YouTube now at whopping 47 videos which have expanded to slideshows and audio commentary. I have 19 YouTube subscribers and 1,147 views. The number of fairies in my garden have also grown but we have yet to take a census to document an actual number. 

So, in the realm of goals achieved, my yard has gained the wonderful addition of a sprinkler system and I have added repainting to my list of skills. We set out to bring my worldly travels into my garden but have yet to produce results on that, however, let it be known that I do have many items I need to get them finished, including *spoiler alert* a pineapple plant!

I feel like we've achieved a lot and am so happy to have all you Fairy Folks with me on this journey. For the third year of this venture, I feel my goals might be getting too big, too fast, but I'm not afraid to try and impress myself and the rest of you! First priority is to have at least one fairy vacation garden done before the end of the year which should give me plenty of time (and not have to disappoint anyone in next year's recap). Second priority is a special event that was announced in March; the Gnome wedding. Planning has been in progress and in the next few months we will fill you in on that. As of now, we are aiming for a November wedding.

There are also some special treats planned, but we'll just make them a surprise. Thank you all so much for your continued support. Please keep commenting and sending me photos of your own fairy garden so that I can feature them in my blog.

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An Enchanted Anniversary

I began this blog in July 2014. I had begun my journey with fairy gardens three years before that. In this fourth year of gardening, my blog has encouraged me to continue to expand and create in ways I wouldn't have been able to do on my own. Pinterest, YouTube and Google+ have been wonderful inspirations and this blog, along with its followers, have been a motivating force. 

Conversing with other bloggers and readers has been a real joy. I love to read comments from my readers and take pleasure in seeing their own creations and blogs. I consider myself to have gained friends via this blog adventure.

My fairy garden has also helped me connect and spend time with my family - be it physical labor, like updating my home and garden, or creative and technical labor, like updating the blog and Facebook, editing photos and putting together magical videos on YouTube.

As of today I have 316 followers and 136,380 views on Google +. I have 11 videos on YouTube, something I only started at the end of last year, and an undocumented number of additional fairies.

The plans for the future are vast and many. I plan to bring more of my personal journey into my fairy garden by adding scenes from places I have had the pleasure of traveling to in the past few years; Yosemite Park, Hawaii, Alaska and more. On top of that large expansion, I plan to take up painting in hopes to restore some of the garden pieces that have been stripped by the sun - saving existing characters and not having to spend money buying new things. Finally, dependent on the severity of drought in California, I hope to be able to add a water feature to my gardens.

Feel free to comment below with what you feel has been your favorite part of my fairy garden so far. Do you have any suggestions for future plans? Leave those below as well.

Finally, yet another large thank you to all of my readers, followers and commenters; without you, this blog would be sad and lonely.

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