2024 Garden Goals 🌷 || What Are My Garden Plans for 2024?

I love taking the time to set goals at the beginning of the year and garden goals are no exception. Follow along as I discuss my garden plans for 2024.

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Planting Zone 8a Wylie, Texas

She’s a Mad Gardener is a YouTube channel exploring projects in the home including but not limited to home gardening, DIY decorating, holiday decor, easy recipes, and so much more.

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Hey y’all it’s Amanda and this is my Texas Zone 8 Garden and today is the beginning of 2024 and I’m excited to go over all of my gardening goals for this entire Year okay I love the beginning of a new year I look forward to it every year I love the Fresh Start I love the planning I love the setting of goals I I just feel refreshed with a brand new start at the beginning of a year one of my

Favorite things to do is to do resets in different portions of my house I love to organize I like to clean things out and I just love to prepare for a beautiful and wonderful year to come and included in that is creating Garden goals for myself I’ve done this the last few years

And I really find that it’s really beneficial to me helping me St focus on the things I want to do helping me plan for future projects and also helping me plan budgets throughout the entire year now when I am setting goals for myself in my garden I do not myself I do not

Set myself a bunch of like massive goals tons and tons and tons of goals I try to keep it to below five total goals and within those goals I try to give my myself some things that are achievable easily achievable and then I try to give myself a little bit more loftier goals

And I find that this adds balance throughout all of my gardening goals throughout the year I don’t want to set myself up where the only time I can achieve these goals is after 12 months of really really hard work I need some achievable goals along the way to keep

Me motivated throughout the entire year I think I’ve said throughout the entire year like five times though it was fun this last year in 2023 I set my goals and then at the end of the year I did an overview I went back and I graded myself

On how I did and I did pretty good I mean I I mostly passed on all of them but with that in mind I went ahead and set my goals for 2024 with some of the things that I did not achieve last year and then things I do want to achieve

This year kind of a combination of the two okay so let’s talk about my four goals once again I’m doing a combo of more simple of simple and more extensive goals some of them will just be little projects throughout the year some of them will be a huge project it just

Really depends on what the particular goal is my first goal is to focus on companion planting and a lot of people are like what’s companion planting well it can get really basic in that you’re just mixing in vegetables flowers basically plants that add benefits to one another one of the most common ones

You probably heard about is planting maragold around your vegetables because they can wart off insects but then they also bring in beneficial pollinators as well but basically I wrote down a little bit about companion planning basically you’re planting different props in proximity for a variety of different reasons uh weed suppression um Pest

Control pollination better pollination uh beneficial insects when I say beneficial insects I mean insects that will come and eat the bad insects which is wonderful to maximize space and then to increase crop productivity and alleviate soil compaction um and so there’s a wide variety of reasons why

You might use campanion gardening one of the other reasons that I feel like is left out of here and it’s kind of going to sound trivial but the other one is beauty I think that there is a really like Whimsical beautiful um appreciation for a mixture of vegetables and uh

Flowers just different plants mix into one another as opposed to keeping everything really compartmentalized and I definitely think that in my current gardening situation I’ve definitely done more um compartmentalizing everything and that’s what works for my brain so you know leaning towards companion planting is going to be a challenge for

Me now some of the ways that I’m going to be companion planting is um I’m wanting to really mix in a lot more Vine type of plants and I’m actually wanting to create some structures over my raised beds where I want to grow up um different Vines such as gourds and

Pumpkins and squash and things along those lines with the flowers underneath blooming underneath I want to mix in vegetable plants throughout some of my flowers as well kind of giving the illusion of a little bit more of a cottage feel in the garden but then also creating interest throughout the entire

Seasons a lot of times what I do is just I plant one particular crop in a bed and that’s it and I grow it and then I let it die and then I add something else I would love if I could set it up where one plant started and then another plant

Overtook and then another one finished up for the fall so that I have constant use of the space and that I don’t have any bare areas another aspect of companion planting the that I really like is the idea of using color as companion planting most bees um pollinators are attracted to blue and

Purple colors so if I add things like lavenders or salvas things along those lines that have these blue and purple colors around other plants that don’t necessarily have it like Reds Reds is not necessarily a color that overly attracts um pollinators but if I were to have something like a beautiful red rose

Like my Don Juan Rose and then I were to put lavender underneath it the lavender would basically bring in more pollinators to the space which is going to be beneficial for both of the plants so I kind of really love that idea of mixing in color as companion planting not just

Varieties of plants companion planning is going to be a whole study I’ve gotten a couple of books my sister just got me this one for Christmas companion planning for beginners a complete guide to companion planning strategies for an organic Bountiful and healthy vegetable garden now so this is is going to be

Focused on vegetables I am growing a lot more vegetables this year but I really am looking and mixing in vegetables and flowers okay goal number two is hard Scapes what I mean by hard Scapes is I mean areas that are made out of hard materials such as brick or stone or even

Mulch basically areas that don’t necessarily have vegetation and what I’m really wanting to do is I’ve got some areas where I’ve got some drainage problems in my backyard and I would really like to look into pulling back the turf or the grass and installing areas where I can alleviate that water

That pooling water so basically I would have to pull back the turf I would have to build up some of the earth to create slopes to drain the water away from those particular areas and then I would cover them with a variety of things I’m not really sure what those variety of

Things are going to be yet whether it’s going to be like recycled repurposed brick whether it’s going to be stone and gravel or mulch something along along those lines and in those Hardscape areas I’m really wanted to focus um a lot more container planting in those areas right

Now I definitely have some containers tucked in throughout my backyard and they’re just on the turf on the grass and it’s just not really great for their drainage situations for the actual container sit uh drainage but it’s also not good for the turf there I’m wanting

To have less grass in my backyard um for a couple of reasons in that I don’t love caring for grass it’s not something that I joy and then secondly I just want more room for gardening I mean that’s literally I just want more room for gardening and um I got to alleviate some

Of those grass areas in order to create more areas for gardening in addition kind of tied in with the hardscapes is I’m wanting to create some additional structures in the space basically I talked a little bit when I was talking about goal number one I wanting to build

Some trellis some tall trellis that go up and over the raised beds in the backyard and I’m wanting to grow Vines up those and a couple of things with those those Vines will lend um some shade during the hardest times of the year and that’s when I would be growing

Things that love the heat like loofah lofa is one of the ones I’m wanting to grow I’m wanting to grow birdhouse gourds and I just love this kind of whimsical idea of these tall structures and I mean tall like taller than me so at least seven foot eight foot tall over

My um raised beds and then with these you know um lofas or gourds or whatever hanging from the structures I think it’s going to add a lot of whimsical quality I think it’s going to add in interest I think it’s going to provide shade for the flower welds underneath during the

Hottest times of the year there’s several different things that I think it’ll help out with and then it will extend my gardening Space by working up instead of out and I think for someone like myself who has a smaller plot of land to work on I think gardening up is

Going to be a very important Strate strategy for me over the years okay third on my list is expanding my AirLand chrysanthemum garden and this last year has been wonderful I really enjoy the chrysanthemums they brought me a lot of joy and for those of y’all who don’t

Know I used to grow doas in my um area and I’m in zone 8 in Texas everybody says you can grow them here and I just struggled so much um I tried I just tried in I tried in the garden I tried in race beds I tried in I tried a lot of

Different ways to grow these value tubers and I did not have very good success like very poor success and the tubers are so expensive and so I literally was just wasting money and I was like there’s got to be a better way so I started doing some research and I

Stumbled a upon airlin chrysanthemums in 2022 and that’s when I really started studying them and I made my first order and then I planted them for the first time in 2023 and now we’ve gone a full year with them and they’re doing wonderful I love love them I’m obsessed

With them I can’t believe the Harvest that I got off the first year they’re also coming during a time where I don’t have a lot in the garden it’s you know into fall going into winter when a lot of stuff has gone dormant and so having the chrysanthemums is just absolutely

Wonderful and when I talk about Airline chrysanthemums I’m not talking about the chrysanthemums that you go get at your local Big Box store I’m talking about long stem unique textured colored varieties that are wonderful for cup flower arrangements absolutely love them and so I have 25 20 20 plus varieties I

Looking at adding about 10 to 15 I’ve already placed an order and um I’ll be having a I’ll do a video probably into January into February about that particular order that I place going over the varieties that I ordered I really tried to get some unique and funky ones

So that’ll be really fun to um kind of mess with I also try to get more pinks and I try to get more Reds and so that’ll be fun too because I have a lot of like bronzy peachy um orange tones right now so I really wanted to Branch

Out a different direction on that um but that’ll be a really fun one coming up and I really just have enjoyed heiring pantheons they don’t take a lot a ton of effort they didn’t have a lot of disease there weren’t insects that were invading there they were just so much easier than

Doas and I really think the blooms are absolutely gorgeous and and while yes they’re not a doia they fill that place of a Dalia because doas in my area do not grow during the hottest parts of the summer it’s just too hot so you have to

Start the tubers in the spring you grow them throughout the summer you hope they don’t die during our drought and like excessive 60 plus days of triple degree temps and then hopefully they’ll give you some blams in the fall that’s literally what you have to do with doas

And you know chrysanthemums you follow that same path and they might give you some in the spring we’ll see how that goes this next year because all mine were new plants last year they might give you um a bloom cycle in the spring but they’ll definitely give you one in

The fall but you don’t have to stress about them dying because they’re going to do really well and they handle heat and drought really well as well so we’re going to be adding about 10 to 15 new varieties to the chrysanthemum um to my chrysanthemum collection and it is

Really becoming a collection at this point which is really kind of fun and exciting I haven’t bought any doubles of anything I single plants of all of them because I don’t really need doubles of much plants and I’m really just trying to explore and see which ones I love the

Best so that’ll be a fun Journey for 2024 okay and my fourth goal for gardening this year is gardening on a budget that is typically the way I approach gardening anyway um because I’m not in a position where I have a lot of extra funds to buy whatever I would like

For my garden don’t get me wrong I wish I did and I would buy all the things um but also it’s part of who I am as a person in that I don’t love to buy excess and I don’t love to buy lots of brand new things that just add to all

The many things that we have on this Earth I love to recycle and repurpose I love to Thrift and I love to find a lot of my gardening finds on Facebook Marketplace is one of my favorite I love to Pi things up on the side of the road

I also like to be budget conscious in that I can’t go by all the plants and I would love to go buy hundreds of patunas to add to my garden each year I would do it in a heartbeat if I had the money but I don’t so one of the examples is I

Started a bunch of petunia seeds in December and I’m growing on my own patunas so that I can save money by doing it that way as opposed to going bying the full-blown plant at the nursery which by the way the pans are doing really well with it’s about time

To pot them up to the next level um and then I’m just doing things along those lines seed start starting um basically budget shopping for clearance and sale plants paying attention to what’s on the side of the road for containers or structures within my garden shopping Facebook Marketplace thrifting and I

Also just love a vintage antique aesthetic anyway within my garden so it makes sense I think that sometimes I get wrapped up in like how like imperfection of the garden and I have to constantly remind myself that that’s not actually me and that’s not my style Perfection

Manicured that’s not who I am as a person and if that is who you are as a person good for you that’s totally but I don’t want to fight who I am as a person and I love the vintage antique qualities I love collected items and I love a

Whimsical quality to my garden and so by gardening on a budget that’s really going to help me achieve that aesthetic but it’s also going to help me make sure that I’m not adding you know more things to that our ever growing dump that we’ve created on our Earth and then it’s also

Just kind of giving me something additionally fun to do because I feel like gardening on a budget is a challenge and with a challenge comes time and the hunt and I love the hunt I love looking for things um that are a great deal one of the things I want to

Do this year is I want to start producing some videos where I’m basically getting on Facebook Marketplace and I want to basically I’m going to start with my area but then I’m going to take some suggestions of some other CI and stuff and I want to get on

And I’m going to show you what I can find on Facebook Marketplace for gardening really great deals things that I think would be good and useful and show youall some of the aspects of what’s available in this area or maybe some other cities as well but I also

Feel like with the cost of living Rising I don’t necessarily have extra funds to continue to put towards gardening because I’m having to put that funds back into my kids and my home and my you know life with the exception of the gardening and so I think you know

Focusing on things that I can do within my garden that are budget friendly and then sharing that information with others like I don’t want to hide where I’m getting the good stuff right I want to be out there sharing where where I’m getting the good stuff how I’m saving

The money and then hopefully you can take you know some or all of those aspects and apply that to your own budget in your own garden okay so those are my four main goals for 2024 gardening so that’s companion planting of vegetables and flowers we are going to work on hardscapes and

Help help out in some drainage areas I’m also going to be expanding my airlin crysanthemum collection and then finally I’m going to be focusing on gardening on a budget and you can see that those four goals are kind of wide spread I mean they’re very different aspects of

Gardening and within each of those goals are some smaller goals as well so I do want to encourage you all don’t set yourself one big giant lofty goal that will take the entire year to achieve if you have that lofty goal break that lofty goal down into five six whatever

However many steps so that you can definitely have a check off the list throughout the year so that you can see that you’re making progress and that you can you know continue to gain steam throughout the year and be motivated to finish your project I definitely with my

Shade garden I spent so much time at the beginning planning and for a lot of people that might seem like a waste of time just like go for it but I was gardening on a budget as well well I wanted to see if I could reuse and

Recycle materials I really had to wait for a lot of things to fall in place and then as I was able to check those small things off the list of hey I’ve got this i got this now I’m lined up with this then the project really started

Snowballing and moving forward and I was really happy with what I achieved by the end of 2023 within my shade garden now the shade Garden’s not done we still have stuff to do on that but I think that that’s going to be an ongoing project for years to come all right you

All I hope you have set yourself some goals for gardening in 2024 if you have not there’s still plenty of time take a little time jot down some ideas and thoughts pull some pictures that you love get some screenshot of your favorite YouTube gardeners really kind of compile you know a collection of

Thoughts and ideas and then go through and pick a few of them that work really well as a goal for yourself you once again you want to make sure that some of those goals are easily achievable you know throughout the year and then if you have the loftier goals make sure you

Break it down into smaller goals so that you can feel the progress throughout the year all right I hope you liked my goals if you have any other suggestions on some things that I should be doing throughout my garden this year be sure to drop a comment below but what I would

Really like to hear is your goals so if you have a goal for your garden drop it down below and share it with all of us I’d love to hear what’s going on I’d love to hear your thoughts and love to hear like what your inspiration and direction is for 2024 gardening all

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