High, Low, & Bet You Didn’t Know - Assessing the 2020 Garden Year

Welcome to the Grow youw Self podcast. Surprising stories about the food we eat and inspiring conversations about what it really takes to live the whole and happy life we're all craving. I'm Nicole Johnsey Burke, your host and the owner of Rooted Garden and gardenary Incorporated and author of Kitchen Garden Revival. Is it obvious yet? I'm kind of obsessed with the kitchen garden. The kitchen garden may just be the answer that you've been looking for on your own journey to health and wholeness in this podcast. It's going to inspire and enable you to make garden magic right in your very own space. If you're someone who wants to eat more good food that's actually good for you, fill your day with great stories you want to text to a friend. If you want to hear more about inspiring people and do a little bit each day better than the way you did it the day before, Grow Yourself is what your ears have been waiting for. You won't just learn about gardening here, you'll learn how to make growing as a person a big part of your everyday life. And your life, your community. And your garden, of course, will be all the better for it. So put in your headphones, turn up the volume, and let's take a walk, go on a drive, or just hang out in the kitchen garden together. Welcome to Grow Yourself. What's your high, your low, and your bet you didn't know? Have you ever asked your family this question? We often have this discussion over our crazy dinner table, and it's a great way to sum up and review what's just happened in today's episode. In this episode, we're going to do our high, our low, and our I didn't know that of the 2020 gardening season, November is a fantastic time to look back on all that made you happy, all that disappointed you, and what you learned along the way. Today we are going to do the ultimate of learning to grow ourselves because of all that we have grown ourself. So let's dive in. Sound good? I love looking back before I start to look forward. And that's what we're going to do on today's episode. The high, the low, the bet you didn't know. Today's episode is brought to you by Gardenary Garden Consultants. Gardenary's mission is to bring back the garden, to make the garden an ordinary part of everyday life for everybody. And the way we do that is we certify experienced gardeners around the country, even around the world, to help new and beginner gardeners or those just kind of in the middle of their gardening journey. Along the way, gardenary consultants help design and create a garden space for you that fits your needs and satisfies your garden dreams. So, as you look forward to 2021 and think about the garden you want to create for next year, it's a great time to contact a gardenary consultant. You can find yours@gardenary.com business look back together and talk about the high, the low, and the Bet you didn't know of our 2020 gardening season. Here we go. Welcome back to the Grow youw Self podcast. It is November. What in the world? How are we already in the last two months of 2020, in some ways this has been the slowest year ever. And in other ways it just feels like it just flew by. In the sense that I haven't done a lot of the things that I normal in years past, but that is okay. We can still turn the page on the calendar and do some great things in November to get us ready for a better year in 2021. Sound good to you? We have this fun tradition that we've done over dinner. It's nothing novel, I'm sure if you are, I don't know, anywhere on the Internet you've had this idea or already done it with your family. But when I'm trying to get my four kids to talk to me over the dinner table, we honestly actually mostly eat on the island, let me be honest, on bar stools. But when we're eating dinner and I'm serving up plates, a great way to get everybody thinking and talking is to ask them to tell me three things. What's the high of your day? What's the low of your day? And what's something that I just don't know about your day? I bet you didn't know kind of surprise. Well, I thought it would be so fun if we could do that for our garden. Sometimes when I ask people to assess their garden year or tell me what worked and what didn't work, that can feel overwhelming. So let's just keep it simple. Even if you do nothing after this episode but just list three simple answers, that is sufficient. So you're going to pick your highs and your lows and then some surprises that you've had along the way. So we're gonna review our garden just as we would review other parts of our life. So our health journey this year, or how our business did, or how our home improvement projects went, or, I don't know, your exercise. Whatever. The same way that you would review other goals and parts of your life. I want you to take a little bit of time, since this is a gardening podcast, and review your journey in the garden this year. So we're gonna be doing throughout the gardenary platforms throughout the month of November. So you're going to see my high and lows posted on Instagram and Facebook. We'll be telling some of these stories on YouTube as well. And then I'll also be highlighting stories from garden coaches and some of our gardenary clients and students to tell their highs and lows as well. So it's going to be a month long process of going through our highs and lows together, celebrating our wins, learning from our losses, and making great plans for next year. So let this little episode here just kind of weigh your appetite for the great practice of reviewing your year and doing that first before you look forward to the next one. So November I love as a great month for reviewing one because December is crazy. Can you agree? It's like the minute December 1st happens, the calendar just picks up speed and you know, maybe even this year with COVID we're not going to have lots of parties and events, but it just seems like the days in December go so quickly and before you know it, you're around the holidays and work's over and you're on vacation or you're with your family and you just kind of lose all sense of time in December. At least I know I do. So January 2nd is often a time when people start to think, okay, it's time to, to set goals and make plans. But by that point, honestly, we're already into the new year. So sometimes I can feel a little bit disappointed if I get to January and I'm finally making my goals, but I'm like, oh, shoot, I missed my first month of the year. You know, Also, January, in terms of the garden is a fantastic time to be ordering seeds and making garden plans, to be securing a consultant or a contractor, someone to help you in the garden. It's really a time where you already need to have your plan in place, not necessarily a time for reflection. So if you take out December and you take out January, that leaves us with November, which is right where we are right now. So that's where we're gonna take this month to do our highs and lows and bet you didn't knows and make a plan ahead of time for December and January. Sound good? All right, so as we dive into highs and lows, I want you to keep in mind a few things that are gonna kind of set you free to be honest about your review garden? Sometimes. I know for myself and with students or clients or even with my kids, we are sometimes afraid to admit the lows or even the highs sometimes because it feels like kind of a little too much pressure. You know, I have one kid when I ask, and she's like, I don't know. I didn't have anything. I'm like, come on. I know you had some point in your day where you were happier than you were at other points of the day, but she just doesn't like to necessarily own that. And so if this kind of idea of reviewing the year and looking at your successes and quote, unquote failures overwhelms you, here are a few things to set you free. Number one is nature. You guys know one of my mottos at Gardenary is to think about nature, that our garden is really just a representation of what happens in nature. And as we know, nature is wild. There are so many factors at play in nature, and when we garden, we open ourselves up to that uncertainty. We allow nature to have control over the results. The reality is, in the garden, we can do so much, and then nature has to really take over and make it happen. So this year you may have had crazy natural experiences. There has been so much that's happened this year with wildfires and hurricanes and torrential rains and flooding, drought. I mean, we are living in pretty scary times in terms of the weather. And so no matter where you live in the world, it's very likely that you had some pretty crazy weather and nature experiences throughout the year. So you might want to start with just that, just kind of taking note. If you can look back, start maybe all the way back in January or February of this year. And you're going to go through each month and just highlight any particular nature occurrences that you can remember. Now, I failed to mention there is a download that we've created for you on the blog post for today's episode to support you as you go through this year review. So you can grab that@gardenary.com blog and that is in today's podcast notes. So that'll help you. We have places for you to leave these notes as you assess your year. So the first thing is just owning up to the fact that nature is really in charge. Mother Nature is. She's the boss. And so take some notes. And first, this kind of frees you up to go. Okay, I had something to do with my success, but not everything to do with my success. The second aspect or factor that can play into our highs and lows is the setup. So if you have raised beds or you're growing in a row garden, what kind of soil you have, what your soil was like at the beginning of this year, throughout the middle of the year and toward the end of the year, and then what kind of support supports you have. So if you have, you know, stakes or trellises, or if you use cloths or frost cloth or shade cloth, and then any kind of other structures you have inside the garden that are helping the garden to grow. So you could take a minute to just kind of take note of what setup you had for this year, how tall your beds are, what your soil was made of, what you added to the soil, etc. Next up, in terms of factors somewhat outside of our control or just, you know, that are as they are, kind of taking note of them is your plants. So what kind of seeds you used, where they came from, when you planted them, what kind of plants you used, where those came from, and when you planted them. So taking some notes on just your plant sourcing and the timing of it. And then if you started any from seed indoors or outdoors, next up is the timing. So taking note of when things went into the garden, when things kind of were harvested, and then when things were pulled from the garden. So again, in your notes that we've created for you in your little journal for this year, there's a place for each month for you to note what got planted, what got pulled, what got harvested. So taking note of the timing right now is a great way to, you know, before you start to decide, okay, that was a success, that was a failure year. It's great to take note of the timing of the things that you put into the garden. And then finally, another factor. Yeah, the fifth factor is care. So what was your schedule like this year? Perhaps with COVID Your kids were home, your work was at home, and you were just like, I cannot find a way to get out to the garden. Maybe you spent a lot less time in the garden this year. Maybe you spent a lot more time in the garden. Look back at each month of the year and kind of as you're looking at what, what nature was like, what your garden was set up, like, what plants you put in and when. Also take note of approximately how much time you spent in the garden during that month. So I know for myself, I'm often much more excited about getting out to the garden, honestly, when it's almost bad to do so or not bad, but like in March, April, here in the Chicago area. I am dying to get out in the garden and do things. And often it's really cold and still pretty gray here. And then the irony is that, say, come July or even August, sometimes I'm a little tired, the newness has worn off, and my time out in the garden is actually less so. Taking note of those things are a great way to frame up what we're about to do in terms of our highs and lows. And I think especially starting and framing out with nature first kind of sets us free. Like, okay, even if I didn't have the best setup or the best plants, and even if I didn't time it, great. And even if I. I didn't care for the plants that, well, nature really gave me a run for my money this year. It kind of displaces the blame a little bit, and I think frees us up to be more honest as we assess what went on in the garden. Okay, so sometimes we can avoid the second thing instead of before in terms of pulling in the factors. Sometimes we can also avoid taking a moment to review things because we don't like to remember the disappointment. I think this is what's happening when my kids avoid the high, low question. They don't really want to talk about the high because they also don't want to have to answer the low. So they just bow out entirely, eat their taco, and return to their bedroom. But I want you to, even after taking all those factors into mind, I also want you to approach the hi, low assessment with a new framing for failure. I love to tell my clients, clients and students that there really isn't such thing as failure. It's really more about experience. And oftentimes our brains can kind of trick us into a trap of where we don't allow ourselves even to admit something was a failure or a disappointment because it kind of feels too personal and, you know, like a defeatist mentality. But if we can take our failures and really actually, you know, lay them out as, you know what, that was a bummer. Like, that did not turn out way I expected it to pull in these five factors that I've listed out and then also assess other reasons why that disappointment may have happened, it's learning, right? It's more than just it takes that negative experience and turns it into a positive one. To me, the worst, the only way that we can really fail is, number one, to quit entirely, and number two is to make the same mistake the same way again next year. So I think it is likely and possible that you may make the same mistake or that you may have the same disappointment, but the hope would be that you don't have it in the same way. Meaning you're attempting a new way to grow this particular thing or have this particular thing in your garden, and it may fail again, but at least you didn't do the exact same thing again and expect a different result. I think that's like a quote, right? It's something like insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So this assessment of our high and low really allows us to not be insane or not drive ourselves insane. As we are learning to garden. One of our key values at gardenary is really our desire is to flip the gardening industry upside down. So I teach this inside Garden Coach society that, you know, the garden industry especially, I only have stats for the US but people spend an enormous amount of money in the garden industry every year, just in the United States. In fact, the recent stats are that people spend almost 100, about $90 billion on landscaping services, and people spend about $50 billion on and garden goods. So all in all, our country in the US people are spending about 150, 140, whatever billion dollars every year in the garden. So tons of money is being spent, but we're not necessarily learning anything, right? So plants are being bought and pots and fountains and, you know, landscapes are getting redone and grass is getting planted, and all this money is being spen on, like the commodity of garden goods, but the skill of gardening. People actually becoming gardeners is where the gap is. So people are spending lots of money getting products and services, but not necessarily learning what to do with those products and services. So it'd be equivalent to selling tons of weightlifting equipment or tons of treadmills, tons of, I don't know, barbells or whatever, whatever you call those things. Lots of stuff, lots of equipment for fitness, but no one actually using them. Right? So billions of dollars being spent in the exercise industry in terms of equipment, but nobody getting fit. That's kind of the situation we have right now in the US where lots of people have tons of gardening stuff, but they don't actually feel comfortable gardening. That's what we want to flip on its head with Gardenary is that you don't just get gardening stuff, but you literally become a gardener. So taking some time right now to assess what happened in the past year is a great step to turn what you've bought into knowledge and understanding. Sound good? I think so. So gardening's not a commodity. It is a skill. And taking a little bit of time to assess yourself and how things went is like the perfect stepping stone to upping your skill for next year. So with all that introduction, let us do our highs and lows and bet you didn't knows. So in your garden journal that we've provided for you, you are gonna first assess your highs. So number one is what were your most successful crops per month? So again, we've laid this out for you where you can note every month in the garden for the year, and you're just gonna list the things that you that were so successful each month. Now, if you're in a place a colder climate than per January, February, you're like Nicole, nothing. But, you know, moving into March, April, we should start to see some things that you're having success with and really enjoying. So for me, definitely a topper on this one would be my spinach that I grew from March to June. So starting probably mid March, I would mark this March, April, May, and June, harvesting spinach every single day from just two beds. So I would list that out. You can list how much you were harvesting and just the successes. So we're gonna focus on the highs first. The reason why we wanna do this by month is because the garden is so dynamic. So you may have had loads of success with peppers, say, in September, but back in June or July, they were a big disappointment. So that's why you wanna do it month by month. So what were your most successful crops? Each month you're gonna list those out and just look back at and celebrate the wins. Give yourself a big high five. You did this, you grew that yourself and it was a success. The second thing I want you to consider, and this really leaning back on those five factors that we noted to kind of frame us up for this assessment, I want you to look back and think what factors contributed to their success. So, you know, for instance, you could, let's say for me, in September, my Swiss chard really took off, going to be a success for a high for September. So what factors do I think contributed to their success? Well, I gave them more space, so that would be in terms of setup. I know they were planted from seeds. They had a very firm, strong start in the garden. So that would be under my plants category in terms of factors. And then nature was just right. We had tons of sunny days, a little bit cooler temperatures, but we actually did not have much rainfall in September. So I kind of take note of what the factors were like in that month and which ones I think contributed to their success the most. And then finally, in your high, I want you to consider what you enjoyed the most of that plant. So, for instance, we talk about this. If you haven't listened to the episode all about five questions to ask your garden consultant. One main focus that I want you to continue to come back to in the garden is your goals for the garden. So are you doing this for experience? Are you doing this for. For the actual produce, like, for the harvest? Are you doing this for the aesthetic of it? You know, what is the main motivating factor? So this is a great time to assess for the successes that you had. What you loved most about them. Did you love their beauty? Like, they just looked awesome in the garden? Did you love the production? So was it, you know, a lot all at once? Did you love what you learned? So whatever kind of education or experience you got from watching the full range of this plant grow, or was it the taste? So something you really practically brought into your home and used up frequently? For me, I grew a rocky top lettuce mix at the same time I was growing my spinach. And that for sure would be for the taste. I was harvesting and bringing in that lettuce mix every night and using and adding it to our dinners. So absolutely, that would be one of the things I'd really say. This is why this was such a high for me. Other parts would be zinnias. So I'll mark when my zinnias did really well, what month they did, and then that's gonna be, honestly, mostly just for beauty. I didn't obviously eat my. I mean, you could actually eat zinnias, believe it or not. But I didn't. But I just loved them for the beauty. So those are the three steps you're going to cover when you are assessing your highs. You're gonna list out what success you had each month, what were your most successful crops, and then the second is what factors you think attributed to their success. And this is really. You could just circle the things that you've already listed out of the factors for each month, and then you're going to note why you enjoyed them the most. So was it because they're gorgeous, you ate them up, or they just taught you a lot about the garden and about the plant. So that's the fun part. Give yourself a high five. Oh, yes. Do a happy dance. And you did it. You grew yourself. You grew something all by yourself. I don't care if this is just some sprouts on your kitchen table or some microgreens or one pot of basil, whatever it is. You absolutely deserve a celebration of yourself for learning something new and growing something yourself. I think oftentimes we don't take enough time to celebrate and really make a big deal of the things that we are successful at. We are, you know, we forget that we are. I don't know that we are motivated by rewards and so, and recognition. If, if kids don't teach us this, I don't know who will. My dogs definitely teach me this. So we are animals after all. Right. So taking a moment to reward yourself and thank yourself for, for going forward and trying something new and growing yourself in a new way this year, I think is super important. And now we move on to the not so fun part of this assessment and that is thinking through our. Again, I want you to remember my reframing, which is the reason why we do go here to the times when we are disappointed, is so that we can learn the lesson and not repeat the same mistake in the same way next year without taking a little bit of time to assess what just happened. Then we're kind of doomed to probably do it very similarly next year without even realizing we're setting ourselves up for disappointment. So just as you listed the highs for each month, you're now going to come down and list the least successful crops for each month. So for instance, at that same time that I was growing so much spinach and rocky top lettuce right in that same bed, I was also trying to grow watermelon radishes. I'd never grown them before, and I have to be honest, they were pretty much a complete failure. I don't think I harvested one pretty edible watermelon radish. Now, I got plenty of greens and plenty of flowers, but I never actually got the radishes. So I'm going to list that out as a disappointment and a least successful crop for April, May and June. Then you're going to go in and you're going to list the factors that contributed to their failure. Again, you'll look back at the things you listed out for the factors that affected each and every month in your garden circle, the ones that you think played the biggest role. Now, actually, I think in this case it was not the plants. I had great seeds from Baker Creek. I don't think it was nature because nature was awesome at that point because the greens, the other greens I was growing were just doing awesome. I actually think it was more about me and the way I planted them. I think they were too close together. I had not thinned them out fast enough, and I think they were actually too close to the other greens that I was growing. And so the spot, those radishes needed more sunshine and more space, and they ended up being covered over by the greens I was growing right alongside them. So the fun part to realize is probably in most cases, and this is probably true for you, especially if you use the gardenary intensive planting method in one single bed, you may have a wide variety of both successes and failures just in the same in one little spot. And that's the case for me. In this one bed. I had both disappointments and celebrations. So those are the factors. To me, it was probably. It's not about the plants. It was more about my tending. So I did not thin them out well enough. I should have been harvesting the greens around those radishes more often, and I should have just probably paid more attention and maybe not even set them up in that way in the first place. And then the third question to ask yourself about the low is, do you want to try again and why so oftentimes? I don't know about you, but I have seen this, even with clients where they keep buying the same tomato plant year after year, even though last year's tomato plant was a low. And so this is definitely a moment to kind of decide, okay, you know, the watermelon radish was a disappointment. Do I care enough about growing watermelon radishes to try again? Because what I learned is, a, these require more tending than my greens, B, they also require more space, which means I'm going to have to sacrifice space of other plants I might want to grow in order to give them what they need to flourish. I also know that I don't love necessarily the taste of radish greens. They're okay. But that particular radish green I did not love. So this means a longer wait and just one harvest. Whereas on my spinach or my lettuce plants, I can harvest from the same plant again and again and again. So take into those factors the same factors that made you enjoy your highs the most. Your beauty, the production, the taste, and the experience. You want to kind of take those four factors in to assess again, whether you want to try for your lows again or you want to pass. Another one of my failures for this year was kohlrabi. And I was honestly just growing it for the experience. I wasn't that excited about eating kohlrabi, but I wanted to see what it look like. And, you know, I wanted to watch the. The life Cycle of the plant. Now, I didn't end up with. I never got that nice little baseball head thing of kohlrabi that looks like an alien. So that was a big bummer. And I learned a few things for sure. And I'm honestly not sure I want to try it again. I might try, like, one, but for me, it took up way too much valuable space in my 90 square feet of garden. And I think there's other ways that I could utilize that space better. So this is a perfect time for you to kind of go, okay, you know, I failed at that and I'm not gonna try it again, or I failed at that, and I think I can look at the factors and make next year better. Okay, so that's how you do the highs and the lows. Now let's do the bet. You didn't knows you're gonna take all that you've assessed from the previous months of the year, and this is gonna help you to make a plan for the coming year. So fun, right? We're doing this in November, guys. We are way ahead of the game. So go back to your highs, the things that did really well, and your lows, and make a list of your priorities, the things you definitely want to grow, and the things that you are definitely not going to grow. So your definite grow, definite no. Those are two lists that you want to make right away. You could even. I'm going to throw this out there. There could be plants that you had a ton of success with. They could be the high, but you actually don't want to grow it again. So, for instance, let's say you. I grew a ton of endive this year. Again, it was more of an experience thing for me. I grew a ton of it, and honestly, I just didn't use it very much. It was beautiful. It was productive. I could get tons of leaves off of it, but I just didn't love the flavor. So that definitely was a high in the sense that it was a success in the garden. But I'm not. I don't think I'm going to grow it again. So this is your garden. You get to make it the way you want to, which is awesome. So make a list of your priorities, things that are definite grow and a definite no. Then also take a little note of things that were beyond your control and that you just pushed through and made the best of. So I'm thinking of one word that we'll all write down, which is cov id. Who could have predicted a pandemic this year? Hopefully by the time we hit spring 2021, things will be changing. But I know there were all kinds of factors, like garden centers running out of plants and seeds and seed shortages and mulch shortages and soil shortages and cedar prices went way up. I mean, everything changed this year. So make a list of the things, like, let's say you didn't get the kitchen garden set up the way you wanted to. So take a note of that. Some of these things happened, and I wasn't really in control of it. So note those factors that you pulled up at the very beginning, the five fact. And then take a note of anything that you could do next year to better prepare yourself for that. So one thing might be, hopefully, none of you guys are gonna go run and order your seeds now, but one thing could be, okay, order your seeds earlier, right? Make a decision now for the seeds that you want, and order your seeds before the rush. Another thing could be, set up your garden earlier, right? If there was a rush on soil and cedar and things like that, kind of anticip that for next year. Other factors like weather that was out of your control. So if you saw that there was a huge drought, say, in July. So making a plan in June to gather more rainwater and be better prepared to keep the garden watered, making a watering schedule for July to better anticipate a month or two where you might have less water available to you naturally. So this kind of puts you back in the driver's seat. Yes, nature is in charge, and yes, a pandemic can make you feel out of control. But taking a little moment to think through what surprised you and kind of stopped you in your tracks, and then assessing if there were a couple things you could have done to kind of mitigate your risk, you know, little steps that you could take even now, to get yourself ready in case any of those things might happen again. Cause history does tend to repeat itself sometimes, right? And then finally, I already mentioned this with the highs, but taking a moment to just sit back, take a deep breath, and just celebrate yourself. All that you've learned and made it through in 2020, this is really a time to celebrate and be thankful and have gratitude. I love taking a minute to not just celebrate the produce of the garden, but what it produced in me. So character traits that came out, lessons I learned, skills that I created, created. I like to remember certain memories that I had in the garden from that year. I remember one morning, it was like the start of summer, and the kids were so thankful to have warmer weather and to not have to do eschool anymore. And I was in the kitchen and my kitchen window looks right out over the kitchen garden. And my youngest, Elaine, she was out. It was probably 7:30. She was already dressed for the day. She's my one person who actually has hygiene. And she was already dressed for the day and she was watering the garden. She didn't know I saw her. She hadn't asked me. And she was just out there watering the garden. And that's a moment I don't want to forget. Right. So it's a great time to write down things like that. Another moment in the fall. My oldest, who's 3 13, she wanted to earn money, so she broke her switch this year, Accidentally got a switch and broke it. It's the, you know, the problem of being on your screen too much. So I told her she could earn it back by working for me in the garden. And you know, a mom of a teenager has to do what she's got to do. You know what I mean? So. So anyway, she. I was videoing her and having her help me do things in the garden and. And she said, is this pepper hot? It's so smiled and she just started eating the peppers. She ate one, then she asked if she could eat another one. And I was like, wait, wait, I have to take a harvest picture. And she just kept eating. That's a moment I don't want to Forget. When she's 17, 18, maybe even a year from now when she really doesn't want to come out in the garden with me, I don't want to forget that. This is a great time to just write down your happy moments, your celebrations, special meals you got to make from the garden, anything that made your life sweeter and better. I want you to end this assessment on a high note. So take some time to really celebrate, to think through what made the year special and memorable and what parts you want to bring into 20, 21, that is the bet you didn't know. So make a list of your priorities, what you want to grow and what is a no. Take a note of what was beyond your control and think through ways that you might be able to mitigate that risk or not have that problem as big of a deal as next year. And then finally throw yourself a big party. Write down your favorite moments, your favorite celebrations, things you do not want to forget, and celebrate yourself because you are worth it. Now. Don't forget. We have a guide that you can download and write in. It's gonna kind of bring you through this process. I really Think this is worth 30 minutes to an hour of your time. It's gonna make the most of your next year and you can grab that at gardenary do. So stay tuned. Like I said on all the gardenary platforms, we are going to spend the rest of November, all of November celebrating the highs and the lows and the bet you didn't knows. I'll be doing it from my own garden and then interviewing and talking to others in the gardenary community to get their stories as well. So I think you're going to love this month. It's going to be a great time of celebrating our wins, learning from our losses and making the most of this crazy year. Do you feel inspired? I hope you do. Please share your highs, your lows, your bet you didn't knows with me, DM me on Instagram or reach out to me on Facebook, whatever platform you love being on, on YouTube too, just drop in and give us a note and tell me what you learned in the garden this year and how you're gonna make it better for next year. Don't forget we have all kinds of resources to help you in the coming year. I'll have some links in the blog post, but we will be start starting our next Kitchen Garden Academy in January. So this year we had over 800 students come through the Kitchen Garden Academy. Talk about some highs and lows. We have had students from all over North America join us and create their own kitchen gardens this year. And I mean you're gonna hear some of their stories this month. There've been some really great moments for them and some really big challenges and we've all done it together inside the Kitchen Garden Academy community. So you can get on the wait list. We are not sign anyone up for that right now, but you can get on the wait list to join the Kitchen garden academy for 2021. And then also we are going to be recruiting and training gardeners all over the place for the Garden coach society in 2021 as well. So if you'd like to become if you are an experienced gardener in this kind of thing of educating and helping people not just have a garden, but become a gardener is your thing where you don't just love gardening but you love teaching others about gardening and you'd like to as a career, we would love to certify you. So we have an incredible certification process. It's a 90 day process and we promise that you can get your business up and running in less than three months and helping others become gardeners in your community. So we will be having our first class beginning that I believe in February. So I'll have links for both those things. You can get on the wait list to join either one of those opportunities and we would love to grow with you in 2021. We're making huge plans for the new and we would love to work with you more closely. And if you just want to get a gardenary consultant, one of those who's been certified as I mentioned then, like I said, today's show is brought to you by the Gardenary consultants and you could get one right now. Take all the lessons you've learned from your highs and lows and bet you didn't knows and have a consultant to help you make a plan for a better garden, a better setup in 2021. All right, thanks so much for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. I hope you feel inspired to take a moment for your to grow yourself and to take all that you've grown this year and turn it into new opportunities and new successes, new lessons for the new year. I know together we are going to make 2021 an incredible year no matter what nature throws our way. Take care and I will see you next week. Bye. Thanks so much for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. Like I said, do not forget that you can get help in your garden from a Gardenary concern consultant. Check them out@gardenary.com businesses. There's a map there where you can find all the gardenary consultants in your area closest to you and they can help you design a garden from scratch or even redesign what you already have and bring it to the next level so that you have more success in 2021 helping you become a gardener. A more successful gardener is what we do at Gardenary. So go find a gardenary consultant today and get everything set up and ready before 2021. I love you guys. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you listened to today's episode and you loved it, please take a screenshot of yourself listening or a little oh no, take a screenshot of your podcast player or a photo, a selfie of you and tag me on Instagram or Facebook. I would love to see you and your smiling face so I know I'm talking to you and not just, you know, the microphone phone in my closet. Love you. Have a great week. Talk to you soon. Bye.