I've been here since the beginning. Your babies were babies, now they are all so grown. You are an inspiration,a teacher, and a mentor. You are a sister in faith, and a faithful friend. I wonder if you know what you mean to so many of us. You show up just as we need you. You share your farm, gardens, family, and meals. You share your life ventures and adventures. You share your dreams and allow us to dream bigger. You share your poetic soul,your heart and all of the emotions that come with that. I have shared in your faith,laughter,and tears. You share you. You are like a little sister I can count on. As long as you show up, I will be here. I will be in the back ground quietly cheering you on. ❤
Let me echo this sentiment. It was very well said and what I intended to say when I opened my app, only she said it a little better. When I started watching Ben was pretty little. He followed you around, kinda like a puppy. It was adorable having all girls myself. It was totally foreign to me. What an adventure it was to raise boys! I have always loved that you and Miah show what it’s like to raise a family to serve God, serve each other, and serve his people. That’s what we’re called to do and you’ve done that in front of a camera for the world to see. I know your intention was to show gardening to the world, but you have shown so much more. You didn’t preach and tell us what to do. You just showed us by living your life. So many people are raised in families that are unhealthy. I love that they can turn this on to get gardening advice and knowledge served with a side of how a healthy family walks out life together in a healthy way. It’s hard, sometimes it’s really hard but at the end of the day we glorify God. He is faithful. Thank you for never bending on that point. Also, thank you for always approaching the garden with an attitude that shows I can do it and if I can do it, you can too. In the beginning, that’s why I kept watching. There were so many people who would say to me say I could never do that. That’s so hard. I don’t have time , how do you find time to do that? I take great encouragement from your garden tours. Thank you. I’m excited that you’re getting back to what brings you the most joy because your joy spills out through the screen to me and fills my cup. That sounds a little selfish. But I’m probably not the only one who feels that way. And I think that’s the way God made us. Happiness spreads the same way bad attitudes and anger spread. Thank you for sharing your joy and love of creation with us. Much love and many prayers, Jenni
Jess, here is my letter to you, as a long time lover of your channel. I just want you to know that throughout all of these years, you have motivated and inspired me to be the gardener that I am today. You spoke to the beauty and not the fear, which moved me in a way that words can't quite describe. You eloquently talked me through the failures and wooed my heart to find peace and beauty in the quiet moments. I have times in the garden where I thank the lord for leading me to your channel, for showing me not the preparation but the love. Moments where my squash all might be dying, and there's aphids on the peppers, and I'm looking like a bedraggled swamp creature in the heat of the summer plucking what feels like every weed in existence, but because of you, I stop and think "wow how beautiful are those butterflies on the borage" or take a moment to appreciate my hands in fertile soil while the sun smiles down on me or just rejoice in my little dream coming to fruition as I pluck a pretty basket of cherry tomatoes. In those moments I think of you and thank you for teaching me to truly love the beauty and peace that is my garden 💜 I love that you are getting back to your roots, because your channel is the refuge that helped nurture my little gardeners soul.
Optimistic Jess! “You can do it” !!!! I have encouraged many a new gardener with this spoken with love. Ben was a tiny tot when i found you- we share so many thoughts, it sometimes makes me think we are related somehow. Your soil sister- Linda ❤
The cow basically said "yaaas" when you declared you are growing a garden for yourself. I think that's exactly how we all feel! I can't wait to see the videos of a beaming Jess knee deep in HER favourite things. ❤️
When you first said, "I'm going to grow the things I love!", your voice broke just a little. And we truly understood how very much you have needed to do this. May this be your most wonderful gardening year ever!
I’m so happy you are going through this revelation about your why. I’ve so missed your earlier garden tours and strolls. I say this with all the love and respect I have, but I have felt the shift in your passion. I miss your joy and excitement and awe when you were just doing this for yourself. It’s what made me fall in love with gardening and take the leap to do this myself many years ago now. I know this is your job, but you still deserve to feel the same connection to your garden without the pressure to appease an audience. I honestly think doing things just for you (your heart garden) will draw more people in and continue to inspire just as much if not more 💚
Aw Jess. I've been following your videos for about 6 years and I noticed in recent years, your vibrant passion seemed fade. Your early videos inspired me to try gardening and to grow my own food. I loved the garden tours, through the whimsical gates with wind chimes and gourds hanging overhead. I got joy from seeing your garden. I've learned so much from you and your family and I'm truly grateful. My garden was really successful then. It was like I had a gardening sister and I imagined you being there, telling me how to make vertical panels and how to sow seeds. Now my garden looks sad since my Dad passed and I've struggled with my health. Listening to you talk about your heart garden is emotional. I've made a vow to create my heart garden this year in your honour. Thank you with all my heart ❤️
This year my goal is to make my garden magical for my kids to want to get lost in... Peter Rabbit vibes. I'm creating a big long cattle panel tunnel with a bunch of pumpkins and squash and cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, all dangling down as you walk through. I want to add solar fairy lights and fairy houses, doors, figures, etc.. just special little things for them to find and get excited about. I want wind chimes and bird feeders and homemade stepping stones with colorful gems. I want to paint bricks to look like book covers. I plan to grow all the colorful things like purple and orange cauliflower, candy striped sweet peppers, fluffy teddy bear sunflowers, and pastel pink cinderella zinnias. I want my garden to feel like you just walked into a fairy tale.
I love this! One year, I made a teepee from bamboo and planted pole beans on it, with an opening for my daughter. At 40, she still talks about what a magical place it was in our tiny suburban yard.
I love these ideas ❤ my daughter will be 3 1/2 this garden season and I really want to start instilling a love of gardening in her, I never thought about adding little creative treasures for her to find. Thank you for sharing ❤
Love that. My fondest garden memories include my babies. If you’re not allergic, decorate a bee waterer! Super fun for small kids to decorate and gives the bee a place to rest. Just a simple terracotta pot and glue the saucer to the top is a cheap option!
I’ve been watching your videos since Ben was a baby. I’m glad to hear you say you’re going back to your happy heart garden 😊 It is my pleasure to see your joy.
I miss the very beginnings of the Arkansas garden; all were so innocent and excited. We were learning together. Now, it's an honor and privilege to have watched and continue to watch the growth of the family and the farm. The excitement continues to be contagious and many times, the content and its messaging, lifesaving. Thank you Jess for everything.
You've helped inspire my momma heart today. My special needs son will need to be brought home in the fall to homeschool (he's in a wonderful private school now) and hearing your homeschool goals and process is helping encourage me to find my son's "heart garden" and meet him where he's at now. I can do this. I will do this. It's absolutely possible and he will thrive in his special education. If you can do it, so can I. Thank you for encouraging my heart today. Everything will be okay!
I so feel this. Last fall I decided for this year, I want any easy garden that I can just enjoy the beauty of. I'm cutting way back on veggies and am going to do aleast half of it in flowers. I want this year's to be a feast for the eyes I stead of the belly.
I loved this video. I think this applies to folks everywhere, particularly ladies. My why, I want to make my wife (rest her soul) proud, and take care of it in a way worthy of what she would have done. Blessings to both you and your family, and thank you. God bless.
So sorry for your loss. I am sure your wife is looking down on you working and maintaining the garden she loved and IS very proud of you. I hope that continuing to work y’all’s garden brings you peace and happiness and affords you the opportunity to feel close to her in her absence. God bless and keep you.
I garden for joy and almost as an act of resistance that I’m still here. I have a lot of rare and serious health challenges that are medical mysteries to the dozens of doctors I’ve seen over the last 3.5 years and counting on full disability and after 25 years of health struggles. It brings me peace to be in my little greenstalk/ container garden on my back porch. Sometimes it keeps me sane to have a task to do that isn’t medical. Because I’m a person too, not just a diagnosis. I appreciate offsetting my lettuce, tomato and herb costs, but really I do it because it gives me a reason to keep trying.
I have not been able to garden since the little bit I did that last summer I lived in Portland in 2022. When I sold the house and moved I came to feel a deep sense of loss for how my garden was an important place of solace for me. I have missed it very much. Now after 3 moves in less than 3 years I am finally settled in a different town in a small mfg home park. That all plays intowhat I want for the garden here. First to begin to restore the place of solace I have missed so much. To have a place I can sit and enjoy the fragrances and life of the garden. I will have my herb garden again. I plan to grow some food and a few flowers for cutting along with my herbs to have things that feed my creativity and things I can bless my neighbors with too. Like you I am resisting unnecessary experiments this year as much as possible since this entire landscape is being renovated and will all be new to me. Since I no longer have Ben to help I can't go crazy like I used to. I want to create a sustainable but lovely esthetic in its design. So we shall see how it goes.
I absolutely love your videos. You have taught me to love my garden. I don't want to plant all things. I am also reigning myself in. I will grow what I love and eat and what I feel like sharing with others. Thank you for your honesty. You are such an inspiration. Happy planning and gardening!
0:45 I found you in spring of 2018 when I was researching content on different options for making my own raised beds, wanting to grow food for my family. I ended up choosing in-ground gardening in the end, but I have kept up with your channel and also have watched all or nearly all of your content right from your beginning days. Your channel is my number one favourite on RUclips…The Farmer’s Table one too. And Miah’s Workshop. I kinda think of the three as one channel with different outlets.😅 You don’t know me, but to me it feels like we’re friends. Thank you for sharing your heart in this space. Hi from BC Canada🇨🇦👋
Been with you all along. Your back -to-basics esonates with me. You have inspired a huge life change for me. I moved from the city to a house with a big garden, with chickens. You fuelled that dream, encouraged me. You said: make your waiting room a classroom. That was enormously helpful. Lots of love and gratitude to you, lovely Jess!
I find myself in a similar place this year - feeling exhausted and having lost the joy that the garden used to bring. My garden goals this year are two fold: The first is to bring back the joy. For me this looks like embracing chaos - trying a bunch of new varieties I've never tried before. This (hopefully) will keep me engaged and excited about what is happening in my garden. The second goal is to grow as many of my plants from seed as possible. I was a bit astounded last year when I tallied up how much I had spent on bedding plants - prices had suddenly (or maybe not so suddenly) doubled or sometimes tripled. This also leans into my first goal - growing from seed will let me try out new varieties instead of buying the same old plants from the same old places each year. Good luck to everyone with their gardens this year, may the odds be ever in our favour :)
I think I was one of your first 5,000 subscribers. You are a big reason why I started gardening and how I continue to learn. You changed my life and I am forever grateful!!! I garden to feel the joy and sorrow of success and failure of growing my own food! We are healthier for eating more food from our backyard! I am mentally healthier for getting out of my own head and play in the soil!
Jess! I've been watching you for 6-ish years. I've learned so much from your videos, had some good gardens in the beginning, but in the last three years, I've started gardens, just to lose a loved one and let them become neglected grief gardens. My why this year is to reclaim the garden to nurture my Ag Sciences kid in turning it into the legacy garden. for food, fun, for flowers.
I feel the same.. I planted a garden last year to preserve a year’s worth of food.. but I found myself not enjoying the fresh eating aspect of my garden. And putting all efforts into preservation ..it became such a task.. I lacked joy when I gardened..God spoke to me clearly.. after 7 years of gardening in this particular spot, He’s instructed me to let it rest.. I’m planning pots and containers for my favorite items and covering the majority up until fall planting.. learning my why.. one day at a time..You’re such a blessing Jess.. I Bless You~ Vicki
Jess, I have followed you a long time, perhaps from your 2nd year. I must tell you, you join my husband and I for breakfast with every new vlog you issue. It has become quite the ritual and we thoroughly enjoy your company, lol. My 'why' is because I like to grow things and my garden has always been a space of peace, beauty and wonder. This has proved to be the case whether I was living in an apartment with a balcony garden full of pots or now on our large property in the country. We also value the taste that comes with fresh produce from unusual varieties. Oh, and thank you for converting your temperatures to Celcius. It really helps with understanding the temperatures you are experiencing. We will enjoy this ride with you for as long as you let us.
Jess: "I'm growing a garden for myself." Cow: "Moooooooooooooooo". Cow translation: "YAY! You go girl!!!" 😂😂😂Timing is EVERYTHING! 😂 Honestly, I'm happy for you. I've been in those "spaces" too where I felt I needed to grow for a year's supply, etc. Now that I'll be 70 this year I'm in a different place where gardening has changed completely. We still grow in a few raised beds....6 total, but now I've picked up our 2nd Greenstalk. I'll be transitioning mostly to Greenstalk growing and add more of them the next couple of years. Gardening will always be part of my life, just will transition as needed.
I absolutely love your ability to self-reflect and communicate your emotions/feelings. I adore videos like this from you. Thank you for not being afraid to be the person God made you to be.
My why this year is all about the flowers. My daughters light up with such joy when the flowers bloom and they can bring in a bouquet for our table and I want to foster that joy as much as I can. Fostering joy in my children in the garden is always my over arching goal.
I originally found you through a tomato video in 2018??? You were definitely my best friend through Covid. I am a teacher and teaching remotely almost ruined me. Students weren’t showing up, parents were burdened with other things. My end of grade scores at the end of 2021 were depressing beyond belief!!! I felt like the worst teacher ever!! My little garden outside saved me! Where I didn’t see growth in my students, I saw God working in my yard. It helped to keep me from quitting education. Watching you and the few others I was following then helped save me, too. You all helped me fine a different why in my life. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. We have one son, but my husband knows you are the daughter that we never had. I love you guys and pray that I can give you a hug one day. ❤ Love you all!
This year my "why" is to learn to be a gardener. I just want to dip my toe in and see how it goes. I have been watching your channel for a couple of years now, yearning for the opportunity to start my own gardening journey, and now having finally returned from going to school abroad, I am back in my family home where I have the space to try. I will be confined to what the nursery offers in terms of plant starts for now, and am bracing myself for setbacks from squirrels and pests, but I am excited to finally give it a go. Much as I would like a bountiful harvest, my main goals are simply to learn, have a reason to be outside every day, and watch something beautiful grow :)
🥰 When you started talking today, I was thinking about your trellises in the old garden. I loved those & the old garden door in your early videos. Thrilled we will see them again. Thank you for sharing your life with us!
Speaking of fresh eating, years ago (probably 1971), my neighbor who had a very beautiful successful garden was helping me(a new mom and new gardener) learn how to garden. Before I had any harvest, she brought me some fresh out of the garden corn and said, don’t let this corn spend the night in the refrigerator. I didn’t understand why until I ate it that night. ❤️❤️ The same thing happened with potatoes that she brought me. Fast forward to when I harvested my first corn. Well, it was all ready the same day 😳and I had quite a bit. But I had no freezer and I didn’t know how to can. So I pulled all the corn, put it in my trunk, and went to friends houses sharing my corn and said ‘don’t let it spend the night in the refrigerator! Fresh eating is the best!!
🙋🏻♀️ been here from the start, and now I'm living the homesteading dream. I had the dream before finding you, but you inspired me that I wasn't crazy for wanting this life! You were my gateway homestead experience, and I lived vicariously through you on my 1/10 of an acre city lot. Thank you Jess for the inspiration and comradery!
I’m scaling way back in the garden. I’m going to manage my fruits better and maybe add some quail to the picture. Your sweet introspection always tugs at my heart.
I just came to say I ❤you! You’re wonderful! And I am so proud of you! 7 years with my friend I’ve never met! My friend who got me into goats and sourdough, raw milk, cheese, fridge magnets, googley-eyed chicken mugs and just helps romanticize my life. And while I had always gardened and canned, and had chickens, I now grow umpteen varieties of tomatoes and peppers and we eat much cleaner. And I ENJOY my garden. 🎉It’s gonna be a great year!❤
This will be my second season gardening! I'm still in the learning and growing phase. The amount of joy and peace it gave me last season was unmatched, and I can't wait to get back out there again!
I remember you being so excited about planting black hollyhocks and going on and on about them I’m so happy to see you getting back to your roots and refuge ❤
Love the idea Jess! I have been here since 2020. I’m a covid gardener. You taught me so much. I love the idea about going back to basics. Can’t wait to see what you have in store for us.
This has been a particularly difficult year for us. We survived Hurricane Helene and felt we were getting our feet under us when we were overjoyed with the surprise that we were pregnant. 3 weeks ago we found out we were losing the baby. The amount on sadness and heaviness in my heart feels monumental. Every choice that I make everything that I do this year and this gardening season will be purely rooted in finding Joy and nourishing my mind, body, and spirit. Thank you for being here for us Jess.
I've been here since Hurricane Helene and done some binge watching and intentionally watching the past devotionals. Thank you for sharing your health through your life to this point, to the degree that you have and I'd love an update (is a urethra insert still something you need, the pelvic floor specialist and the changes from that), and expanded to your family cooking channel. I'm a previous flower gardener and vegetable gardener with my Veterans at the Veterans home supporting them and weeding duty, I gardened for my friend with arthritis for years and after my physical injuries became more and more painful, I wasn't able to garden for years and a year and half ago, unable to work. I'm going to see if my avid gardening friend will again set up my GreenStalk but not generously fill it again, but it's a great adapted garden for me, I purchased the spinning base. She didn't put it in the back yard because ide have to go down a whole flight of stairs to get to it, she put it across from my hose spikit, by my front door 😆 on the corner so the side walk is already on two sides so I can sit, and spin the GreenStalk She knew best. I want to challenge it's limits and grow pickling cucumbers and the inedible sweet peas flowers that smell nice, as the Lord wills! Thank you Jess and Commenters for inspiring me!!!
Bless your heart, you have a way about you that helps me see things in a different light. Yes, I’m one of those that wanted the garden to be perfect.😜 My parents gardened to feed their five children and now I garden because I think it lets me feel closer to them somehow. I only have a small backyard space but I sure do love the fresh produce from it. I grow enough to eat fresh and preserve some-perfect! I discovered your channel in 2019 and am a devoted fan. Thank you for all your help.
I’m so excited about your new garden plans. I just have one suggestion. One of the things that made your videos so poetic and lovely was the gentle picking of Daniel’s guitar. I feel like it isn’t so much in the videos since you moved. So I hope you incorporate that back in ❤❤❤
I’ve been watching your channel for 7 years now, since my oldest was born and I started researching food. You’ve taught me so much! Gardening, homesteading, animal husbandry, cooking, and have helped deepen my devotionals. I so appreciate you and your beautiful family.
I want you to know that I stumbled on your build an arched trellis video, I think 6 years ago, and wow!! My girl! Where you have taken my garden journey, what you and sweet Miah have accomplished on your garden journey. Love your Spirit, love your inspirations and I love seeing you continue to grow and share your successes and your failures. Thank you!
I love this. I found you right before your move to S Carolina, and I can honestly say that what drew me to your channel is your joy and wonder in the garden. I'm looking forward to your rekindled awe of your garden.
I love your dream for this year’s garden Jess!!! I too plan to be very intentional about growing my favorites and simplifying a little bit. No matter what you do, you always educate & inspire!!! Excited to see how it grows!❤
My “why” is beauty. My heart wants all the flowers, just for the joy of it.💐 I’ll also plant plenty of food for fresh eating because that’s so tasty and delightful too, but it’s especially the flowers that make my heart sing. They always have, since I was a little girl. What you were saying in this video really resonated with me, even got me a little choked up…planting all your favourites, making it the garden of your heart…yes! I needed that. Last year I felt like I didn’t have ownership of my garden, even though it was me doing all the work. What I had planted…the purpose was for others, not for me. It was fine, but I had lost the joy. I want that back. This season Imma plant all my faves right along with you and see if I can get that feeling of delight back, then I can share from the overflow of my heart and garden instead of it being like a duty, an obligation. (That sounds like a good experiment to me!)
This is also mine! Fresh flowers make me so so happy and calm and my kids think I’m crazy 😂, I just want to be surrounded by as much beauty as possible, the smells of herbs when I brush past, the garden after summer rain, the buzzing of wildlife, the sun on my skin. Can’t wait! Glad to see there’s other out there like me ❤
I’m so excited for you and grateful that you share. We all lose ourselves and self correct sometimes. And I am so excited for another garden season with you!
Oh did this ever speak to me and exactly what i really needed to hear! 15:15 into the video you said "yeahh Im growing a garden for myself" one of your cows bellowed out a MOOO it was like a trumpet! Powerful and totally made me smile big! xo
I have been here since the start ar close to it! You have been a great inspiration for my transition from a city girl to a homestead one! You and husband are great inspiration for us here in a way colder climate of Quebec Canada!
I’ve been here from the beginning. I to am not in a rush this year. Not sure if I’ll be able to plant because of my health. I say that with a heavy heart. I do know I can garden vicariously through you & your channel. Thank you
This will not only be my first garden season watching your channel, but my first garden season ever. My why this year is learning as much as I can, trying new things, and maybe growing some delicious food to feed my family for a couple of months. Seriously considering making an actual sign for the garden fence with my why on it so I can remind myself if I get frustrated throughout the season.
Yes & Amen!! ❤️ Was wiped out by flash flood last March... have a blank slate... didn't really like my first try anyway. Everything you said resonates with me, and I'm so looking forward to what's to come. Thank you 😊😘
Been here since close to the beginning but went back and watched everything I had missed before I found you! Love your channel and you guys!!! I have my first high tunnel 26x10x10 in my in town, neighborhood back yard and I'm so excited for it this spring!!! Keep up the videos and sharing everything you do!!! We love it all!
I am a new listener. But! When you said this is your 8th year! I immediately thought that the number 8 represents new beginnings in the Bible! You gardening from your heart ties into Jesus's heart. I just left a painful marriage two years ago. Gardening for 28 years of marriage plus ANYTHING that has to do with my interest was a lonely path. I love what you are teaching your kids this year. It touched me deeply that they have a greater chance of being kind men to their wife's heart. Also, this is what Troy Brewer in TX says about the #8 in his book "New Beginnings This is the number God uses to illustrate resurrection. It has to do with new birth, new life and new creation. When God preaches on redemption and when He makes things alive again, He likes to use the number eight in His language." Blessings and peace on you sister! ❤
Love! Jess, you are such an inspiration. Your videos and perspective are refreshing and make the world brighter. Thank you for sharing your positivity, dreams, projects and endeavors with us! Can’t stop thinking about gardening and am feeling so great about this season. It’s amazing how much there is to learn.
Jess, I found your channel and a love for gardening in 2018- I still watch your older videos that inspired me to buy my first pack of seeds and to start growing my own food :) My how far we have all come. Thanks for taking us along on the journey.
Girl, I have been with you all 8 years! I’m so overjoyed to see you go back to the basics of your garden 😊😍. Watching your very first garden tours , you had joy. I’ll be looking forward to seeing that joy again ❤️
I found you in 2019 and I'm so happy I did bc you allowed me to find me again. You brought me peace and joy when going through hard things and allowed me to have a garden when I didn't think I could. You helped me to be unapologetically me. Thank you❤
This year after expanding my garden last fall, I’m going to make a prettier more finessed garden. And I’m using the seeds I have to start seed starting. Then I’ll buy plants at a local nursery to supplement what I don’t have. I’m going to put flowers and herbs in it. I want to love looking at it as well as loving the veggies produced. This is my 5th year vegetable gardening.
Thank you for sharing... been there, done that 🙂 This year, no more... I want to enjoy the growing food and not feel overwelmed...so i will cover up a plot this year and minimize the space we really need... I wish you a wonderfull growing year! Enjoy it and do it for you! greetings from Belgium
Jess, when you take about being a good Steward,- for years I complained about the stupid pricker bushes on my property. Then one day, the Spirit showed my y they weren't just pricker bushes-the were actually berries! That was the first jelly I made. Since then, I've felt led that I should look well after the ways of my household. I've expanded my garden, and this year scaled it back . I'm with you. I want to perfect and maintain what I'm trying to accomplish. Lord willing I will🙌
I love this Jess. I think things can become that way sometimes, especially when you’re so passionate about it you want to share & the sharing becomes almost demanding & overwhelming. I pray you have an abundantly blessed heart, garden & year. 🙏🏻💕
This year will be my first year gardening in my new home. Building a garden felt too overwhelming so I bought a greenstalk (using your discount) and I can't wait to fill it with all kinds of things my kids and husband like! Strawberries, beans, spinach, peppers and herbs! Plus I plan on leaving a feelw spaces open to plant things throughout the season. I am trying not to be too hard on myself about not having a full fledged garden and focus on just growing things fresh, like you said! I LOVE harvesting things fresh for dinner!
Inspirational as always! Been Following you for 7 years and loved every single moment of it. You have taught me so much and changed the way i look at everything in life. Much Love !
Hi Jess, my why is still learning to grow something new. For instance I have never ate a home grown Brussel sprout. I am planting what makes me happy. Also teaching my family how to grow their own food. I want to grow what makes me happy, like grown flowers.
I resonate with this so much! This will be my 5th season growing a micro cut flower farm in my backyard. In the process of selling the flowers I have lost a lot of the joy. I am planning a similar standard to yours!
I've watched you for so long and have learned so much from you. On my 4th year and this year my goal is production and focus on what we eat the most. However my daughter has asked me to help her start her first garden of her own which is a small space so will be container gardening. Also my daughter in law and son have asked me to help them start their very first family garden (4 grandbabies) so definitely gonna need lots of production for them. I'm so excited my love for gardening has rooted to my kids.
Hi Jess. I have decided this year to only grow tomatoes and green beans. I have planted many things over the years. These are the 2 items I will eat. Background, single, older and I do not like to cook. I feel the burden going off my shoulders saying this. I don't raise a garden to sustain myself. I grow it because I like the way tomatoes taste fresh out of the garden. I do cook/can green beans and will eat them at every meal if needed. But thinking about this year's garden honestly makes me so happy. Also a few flowers thrown in for pollinators. Love Bev from Oklahoma
Wise girl. I feel what you are feeling, so much! I get it! Bottom line, we love you!!! I pray I can come alive again in my garden this year. I wish I could hug you! My Arkansas girl!❤🙏🏻
I've been here since the beginning. Your babies were babies, now they are all so grown. You are an inspiration,a teacher, and a mentor. You are a sister in faith, and a faithful friend. I wonder if you know what you mean to so many of us. You show up just as we need you. You share your farm, gardens, family, and meals. You share your life ventures and adventures. You share your dreams and allow us to dream bigger. You share your poetic soul,your heart and all of the emotions that come with that. I have shared in your faith,laughter,and tears. You share you. You are like a little sister I can count on. As long as you show up, I will be here. I will be in the back ground quietly cheering you on. ❤
You said so beautifully what i was thinking! Thank you!❤
Let me echo this sentiment. It was very well said and what I intended to say when I opened my app, only she said it a little better.
When I started watching Ben was pretty little. He followed you around, kinda like a puppy. It was adorable having all girls myself. It was totally foreign to me. What an adventure it was to raise boys! I have always loved that you and Miah show what it’s like to raise a family to serve God, serve each other, and serve his people. That’s what we’re called to do and you’ve done that in front of a camera for the world to see. I know your intention was to show gardening to the world, but you have shown so much more. You didn’t preach and tell us what to do. You just showed us by living your life.
So many people are raised in families that are unhealthy. I love that they can turn this on to get gardening advice and knowledge served with a side of how a healthy family walks out life together in a healthy way. It’s hard, sometimes it’s really hard but at the end of the day we glorify God. He is faithful. Thank you for never bending on that point.
Also, thank you for always approaching the garden with an attitude that shows I can do it and if I can do it, you can too. In the beginning, that’s why I kept watching. There were so many people who would say to me say I could never do that. That’s so hard. I don’t have time , how do you find time to do that? I take great encouragement from your garden tours. Thank you.
I’m excited that you’re getting back to what brings you the most joy because your joy spills out through the screen to me and fills my cup. That sounds a little selfish. But I’m probably not the only one who feels that way. And I think that’s the way God made us. Happiness spreads the same way bad attitudes and anger spread. Thank you for sharing your joy and love of creation with us.
Much love and many prayers, Jenni
@@stephanieg5195agreed!!
Well said 😊
Agreed!!!
Jess, here is my letter to you, as a long time lover of your channel. I just want you to know that throughout all of these years, you have motivated and inspired me to be the gardener that I am today. You spoke to the beauty and not the fear, which moved me in a way that words can't quite describe. You eloquently talked me through the failures and wooed my heart to find peace and beauty in the quiet moments. I have times in the garden where I thank the lord for leading me to your channel, for showing me not the preparation but the love. Moments where my squash all might be dying, and there's aphids on the peppers, and I'm looking like a bedraggled swamp creature in the heat of the summer plucking what feels like every weed in existence, but because of you, I stop and think "wow how beautiful are those butterflies on the borage" or take a moment to appreciate my hands in fertile soil while the sun smiles down on me or just rejoice in my little dream coming to fruition as I pluck a pretty basket of cherry tomatoes. In those moments I think of you and thank you for teaching me to truly love the beauty and peace that is my garden 💜 I love that you are getting back to your roots, because your channel is the refuge that helped nurture my little gardeners soul.
Thank you for sharing your journey with me, that is so incredibly kind of you to say.
No one could have said it better
Optimistic Jess! “You can do it” !!!! I have encouraged many a new gardener with this spoken with love. Ben was a tiny tot when i found you- we share so many thoughts, it sometimes makes me think we are related somehow.
Your soil sister- Linda ❤
This was so beautifully said, I feel so similarly.
❤❤❤
The cow basically said "yaaas" when you declared you are growing a garden for yourself. I think that's exactly how we all feel! I can't wait to see the videos of a beaming Jess knee deep in HER favourite things. ❤️
When you first said, "I'm going to grow the things I love!", your voice broke just a little. And we truly understood how very much you have needed to do this. May this be your most wonderful gardening year ever!
I’m so happy you are going through this revelation about your why. I’ve so missed your earlier garden tours and strolls. I say this with all the love and respect I have, but I have felt the shift in your passion. I miss your joy and excitement and awe when you were just doing this for yourself. It’s what made me fall in love with gardening and take the leap to do this myself many years ago now. I know this is your job, but you still deserve to feel the same connection to your garden without the pressure to appease an audience. I honestly think doing things just for you (your heart garden) will draw more people in and continue to inspire just as much if not more 💚
💯👍Agreed!
Aw Jess. I've been following your videos for about 6 years and I noticed in recent years, your vibrant passion seemed fade. Your early videos inspired me to try gardening and to grow my own food. I loved the garden tours, through the whimsical gates with wind chimes and gourds hanging overhead. I got joy from seeing your garden. I've learned so much from you and your family and I'm truly grateful. My garden was really successful then. It was like I had a gardening sister and I imagined you being there, telling me how to make vertical panels and how to sow seeds. Now my garden looks sad since my Dad passed and I've struggled with my health. Listening to you talk about your heart garden is emotional. I've made a vow to create my heart garden this year in your honour. Thank you with all my heart ❤️
This is such a beautiful idea, @4parsnips976 ❤❤❤
This year my goal is to make my garden magical for my kids to want to get lost in... Peter Rabbit vibes. I'm creating a big long cattle panel tunnel with a bunch of pumpkins and squash and cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, all dangling down as you walk through. I want to add solar fairy lights and fairy houses, doors, figures, etc.. just special little things for them to find and get excited about. I want wind chimes and bird feeders and homemade stepping stones with colorful gems. I want to paint bricks to look like book covers. I plan to grow all the colorful things like purple and orange cauliflower, candy striped sweet peppers, fluffy teddy bear sunflowers, and pastel pink cinderella zinnias. I want my garden to feel like you just walked into a fairy tale.
I love this! One year, I made a teepee from bamboo and planted pole beans on it, with an opening for my daughter. At 40, she still talks about what a magical place it was in our tiny suburban yard.
I love these ideas ❤ my daughter will be 3 1/2 this garden season and I really want to start instilling a love of gardening in her, I never thought about adding little creative treasures for her to find. Thank you for sharing ❤
@@suewhalen3919this is such an amazing idea ❤
Love that. My fondest garden memories include my babies. If you’re not allergic, decorate a bee waterer! Super fun for small kids to decorate and gives the bee a place to rest. Just a simple terracotta pot and glue the saucer to the top is a cheap option!
Wonderful ideas. I want a garden just like that.
I’ve been watching your videos since Ben was a baby. I’m glad to hear you say you’re going back to your happy heart garden 😊 It is my pleasure to see your joy.
I miss the very beginnings of the Arkansas garden; all were so innocent and excited. We were learning together. Now, it's an honor and privilege to have watched and continue to watch the growth of the family and the farm. The excitement continues to be contagious and many times, the content and its messaging, lifesaving. Thank you Jess for everything.
You've helped inspire my momma heart today.
My special needs son will need to be brought home in the fall to homeschool (he's in a wonderful private school now) and hearing your homeschool goals and process is helping encourage me to find my son's "heart garden" and meet him where he's at now.
I can do this. I will do this. It's absolutely possible and he will thrive in his special education. If you can do it, so can I. Thank you for encouraging my heart today. Everything will be okay!
You have so encouraged me in knowing my “why” in so many areas in life!
I so feel this. Last fall I decided for this year, I want any easy garden that I can just enjoy the beauty of. I'm cutting way back on veggies and am going to do aleast half of it in flowers. I want this year's to be a feast for the eyes I stead of the belly.
I loved this video. I think this applies to folks everywhere, particularly ladies.
My why, I want to make my wife (rest her soul) proud, and take care of it in a way worthy of what she would have done.
Blessings to both you and your family, and thank you. God bless.
So sorry for your loss. I am sure your wife is looking down on you working and maintaining the garden she loved and IS very proud of you. I hope that continuing to work y’all’s garden brings you peace and happiness and affords you the opportunity to feel close to her in her absence. God bless and keep you.
@@Mimi-inthemiddle I appreciate that, thank you so much. I pray you and your family are well also. God bless.
Thank you for sharing, Marcus. Bless you and your garden.
@@BarnAndBeach Much appreciated and God bless.
Jess, I love your honesty! You do your garden FOR YOU! And we are privileged to come along! Thank you!
I garden for joy and almost as an act of resistance that I’m still here. I have a lot of rare and serious health challenges that are medical mysteries to the dozens of doctors I’ve seen over the last 3.5 years and counting on full disability and after 25 years of health struggles.
It brings me peace to be in my little greenstalk/ container garden on my back porch. Sometimes it keeps me sane to have a task to do that isn’t medical. Because I’m a person too, not just a diagnosis. I appreciate offsetting my lettuce, tomato and herb costs, but really I do it because it gives me a reason to keep trying.
This was beautiful, in cheering for you! Thankyou for sharing! ❤❤❤
I have not been able to garden since the little bit I did that last summer I lived in Portland in 2022. When I sold the house and moved I came to feel a deep sense of loss for how my garden was an important place of solace for me. I have missed it very much. Now after 3 moves in less than 3 years I am finally settled in a different town in a small mfg home park.
That all plays intowhat I want for the garden here. First to begin to restore the place of solace I have missed so much. To have a place I can sit and enjoy the fragrances and life of the garden. I will have my herb garden again. I plan to grow some food and a few flowers for cutting along with my herbs to have things that feed my creativity and things I can bless my neighbors with too. Like you I am resisting unnecessary experiments this year as much as possible since this entire landscape is being renovated and will all be new to me. Since I no longer have Ben to help I can't go crazy like I used to. I want to create a sustainable but lovely esthetic in its design. So we shall see how it goes.
I absolutely love your videos. You have taught me to love my garden. I don't want to plant all things. I am also reigning myself in. I will grow what I love and eat and what I feel like sharing with others. Thank you for your honesty. You are such an inspiration. Happy planning and gardening!
0:45 I found you in spring of 2018 when I was researching content on different options for making my own raised beds, wanting to grow food for my family. I ended up choosing in-ground gardening in the end, but I have kept up with your channel and also have watched all or nearly all of your content right from your beginning days. Your channel is my number one favourite on RUclips…The Farmer’s Table one too. And Miah’s Workshop. I kinda think of the three as one channel with different outlets.😅
You don’t know me, but to me it feels like we’re friends. Thank you for sharing your heart in this space.
Hi from BC Canada🇨🇦👋
Been with you all along. Your back -to-basics esonates with me. You have inspired a huge life change for me. I moved from the city to a house with a big garden, with chickens. You fuelled that dream, encouraged me. You said: make your waiting room a classroom. That was enormously helpful. Lots of love and gratitude to you, lovely Jess!
I find myself in a similar place this year - feeling exhausted and having lost the joy that the garden used to bring. My garden goals this year are two fold: The first is to bring back the joy. For me this looks like embracing chaos - trying a bunch of new varieties I've never tried before. This (hopefully) will keep me engaged and excited about what is happening in my garden. The second goal is to grow as many of my plants from seed as possible. I was a bit astounded last year when I tallied up how much I had spent on bedding plants - prices had suddenly (or maybe not so suddenly) doubled or sometimes tripled. This also leans into my first goal - growing from seed will let me try out new varieties instead of buying the same old plants from the same old places each year. Good luck to everyone with their gardens this year, may the odds be ever in our favour :)
I think I was one of your first 5,000 subscribers. You are a big reason why I started gardening and how I continue to learn. You changed my life and I am forever grateful!!! I garden to feel the joy and sorrow of success and failure of growing my own food! We are healthier for eating more food from our backyard! I am mentally healthier for getting out of my own head and play in the soil!
Yes... For me to getting to know tomatoes
Jess! I've been watching you for 6-ish years. I've learned so much from your videos, had some good gardens in the beginning, but in the last three years, I've started gardens, just to lose a loved one and let them become neglected grief gardens. My why this year is to reclaim the garden to nurture my Ag Sciences kid in turning it into the legacy garden. for food, fun, for flowers.
I feel the same.. I planted a garden last year to preserve a year’s worth of food.. but I found myself not enjoying the fresh eating aspect of my garden. And putting all efforts into preservation ..it became such a task.. I lacked joy when I gardened..God spoke to me clearly.. after 7 years of gardening in this particular spot, He’s instructed me to let it rest.. I’m planning pots and containers for my favorite items and covering the majority up until fall planting.. learning my why.. one day at a time..You’re such a blessing Jess.. I Bless You~ Vicki
I still go back and laugh when in your first few tours you go " you might not want to see this" 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 we all want to see it
LoL yes Jess we need to know ALLLLLLLL the things! 😂😍
Jess, I have followed you a long time, perhaps from your 2nd year. I must tell you, you join my husband and I for breakfast with every new vlog you issue. It has become quite the ritual and we thoroughly enjoy your company, lol. My 'why' is because I like to grow things and my garden has always been a space of peace, beauty and wonder. This has proved to be the case whether I was living in an apartment with a balcony garden full of pots or now on our large property in the country. We also value the taste that comes with fresh produce from unusual varieties. Oh, and thank you for converting your temperatures to Celcius. It really helps with understanding the temperatures you are experiencing. We will enjoy this ride with you for as long as you let us.
I’ve been watching you for 5 years. ❤ I’ve learned so much and enjoy your books and watching your family grow. Thanks for sharing. ❤
Jess: "I'm growing a garden for myself." Cow: "Moooooooooooooooo". Cow translation: "YAY! You go girl!!!" 😂😂😂Timing is EVERYTHING! 😂
Honestly, I'm happy for you. I've been in those "spaces" too where I felt I needed to grow for a year's supply, etc. Now that I'll be 70 this year I'm in a different place where gardening has changed completely. We still grow in a few raised beds....6 total, but now I've picked up our 2nd Greenstalk. I'll be transitioning mostly to Greenstalk growing and add more of them the next couple of years. Gardening will always be part of my life, just will transition as needed.
I thought the same thing! That cow was like "Amen, girl!" It made my heart feel good hearing her say that. 💚
Thank you Jess and Sweet Miah. What you've done for my family and I is unmeasurable!
I absolutely love your ability to self-reflect and communicate your emotions/feelings. I adore videos like this from you. Thank you for not being afraid to be the person God made you to be.
I’ve learned so much from you. You’re a great teacher. ❤
My why this year is all about the flowers. My daughters light up with such joy when the flowers bloom and they can bring in a bouquet for our table and I want to foster that joy as much as I can. Fostering joy in my children in the garden is always my over arching goal.
I originally found you through a tomato video in 2018??? You were definitely my best friend through Covid. I am a teacher and teaching remotely almost ruined me. Students weren’t showing up, parents were burdened with other things. My end of grade scores at the end of 2021 were depressing beyond belief!!! I felt like the worst teacher ever!! My little garden outside saved me! Where I didn’t see growth in my students, I saw God working in my yard. It helped to keep me from quitting education. Watching you and the few others I was following then helped save me, too. You all helped me fine a different why in my life. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. We have one son, but my husband knows you are the daughter that we never had. I love you guys and pray that I can give you a hug one day. ❤ Love you all!
This year my "why" is to learn to be a gardener. I just want to dip my toe in and see how it goes. I have been watching your channel for a couple of years now, yearning for the opportunity to start my own gardening journey, and now having finally returned from going to school abroad, I am back in my family home where I have the space to try. I will be confined to what the nursery offers in terms of plant starts for now, and am bracing myself for setbacks from squirrels and pests, but I am excited to finally give it a go. Much as I would like a bountiful harvest, my main goals are simply to learn, have a reason to be outside every day, and watch something beautiful grow :)
🥰 When you started talking today, I was thinking about your trellises in the old garden. I loved those & the old garden door in your early videos. Thrilled we will see them again. Thank you for sharing your life with us!
Speaking of fresh eating, years ago (probably 1971), my neighbor who had a very beautiful successful garden was helping me(a new mom and new gardener) learn how to garden. Before I had any harvest, she brought me some fresh out of the garden corn and said, don’t let this corn spend the night in the refrigerator. I didn’t understand why until I ate it that night. ❤️❤️ The same thing happened with potatoes that she brought me.
Fast forward to when I harvested my first corn. Well, it was all ready the same day 😳and I had quite a bit. But I had no freezer and I didn’t know how to can. So I pulled all the corn, put it in my trunk, and went to friends houses sharing my corn and said ‘don’t let it spend the night in the refrigerator!
Fresh eating is the best!!
🙋🏻♀️ been here from the start, and now I'm living the homesteading dream. I had the dream before finding you, but you inspired me that I wasn't crazy for wanting this life! You were my gateway homestead experience, and I lived vicariously through you on my 1/10 of an acre city lot. Thank you Jess for the inspiration and comradery!
I’m scaling way back in the garden. I’m going to manage my fruits better and maybe add some quail to the picture. Your sweet introspection always tugs at my heart.
I just came to say I ❤you! You’re wonderful! And I am so proud of you! 7 years with my friend I’ve never met! My friend who got me into goats and sourdough, raw milk, cheese, fridge magnets, googley-eyed chicken mugs and just helps romanticize my life. And while I had always gardened and canned, and had chickens, I now grow umpteen varieties of tomatoes and peppers and we eat much cleaner. And I ENJOY my garden. 🎉It’s gonna be a great year!❤
Amen! This video was for me! I felt a glimmer of life return. Thank you, honey. ❤
Looking forward to a joyous gardening year with you. God bless
Your garden is the one that made me fall in love with the garden and I've loved the progression through the years ❤
This will be my second season gardening! I'm still in the learning and growing phase. The amount of joy and peace it gave me last season was unmatched, and I can't wait to get back out there again!
AND: I am so glad your babies are back home! I could cry! This is right!❤
Love that you are going back to your roots and what brings your heart joy ❤
Thank you for sharing all of these inspirational thoughts!
I remember you being so excited about planting black hollyhocks and going on and on about them I’m so happy to see you getting back to your roots and refuge ❤
Love the idea Jess! I have been here since 2020. I’m a covid gardener. You taught me so much. I love the idea about going back to basics. Can’t wait to see what you have in store for us.
This has been a particularly difficult year for us. We survived Hurricane Helene and felt we were getting our feet under us when we were overjoyed with the surprise that we were pregnant. 3 weeks ago we found out we were losing the baby. The amount on sadness and heaviness in my heart feels monumental. Every choice that I make everything that I do this year and this gardening season will be purely rooted in finding Joy and nourishing my mind, body, and spirit. Thank you for being here for us Jess.
Thank you for sharing your story, I'm sending you a big hug and lifting you up in prayer ♥️
I really love and learn when you teach gardening in depth. You have such a gift for teaching Jess. Thank you.
I've been here since Hurricane Helene and done some binge watching and intentionally watching the past devotionals. Thank you for sharing your health through your life to this point, to the degree that you have and I'd love an update (is a urethra insert still something you need, the pelvic floor specialist and the changes from that), and expanded to your family cooking channel. I'm a previous flower gardener and vegetable gardener with my Veterans at the Veterans home supporting them and weeding duty, I gardened for my friend with arthritis for years and after my physical injuries became more and more painful, I wasn't able to garden for years and a year and half ago, unable to work.
I'm going to see if my avid gardening friend will again set up my GreenStalk but not generously fill it again, but it's a great adapted garden for me, I purchased the spinning base. She didn't put it in the back yard because ide have to go down a whole flight of stairs to get to it, she put it across from my hose spikit, by my front door 😆 on the corner so the side walk is already on two sides so I can sit, and spin the GreenStalk She knew best. I want to challenge it's limits and grow pickling cucumbers and the inedible sweet peas flowers that smell nice, as the Lord wills! Thank you Jess and Commenters for inspiring me!!!
Watching you from the beginning. You are so hopefully, helpful, and real.
Bless your heart, you have a way about you that helps me see things in a different light. Yes, I’m one of those that wanted the garden to be perfect.😜 My parents gardened to feed their five children and now I garden because I think it lets me feel closer to them somehow. I only have a small backyard space but I sure do love the fresh produce from it. I grow enough to eat fresh and preserve some-perfect! I discovered your channel in 2019 and am a devoted fan. Thank you for all your help.
I’m so excited about your new garden plans. I just have one suggestion. One of the things that made your videos so poetic and lovely was the gentle picking of Daniel’s guitar. I feel like it isn’t so much in the videos since you moved. So I hope you incorporate that back in ❤❤❤
I’ve been watching your channel for 7 years now, since my oldest was born and I started researching food. You’ve taught me so much! Gardening, homesteading, animal husbandry, cooking, and have helped deepen my devotionals. I so appreciate you and your beautiful family.
I want you to know that I stumbled on your build an arched trellis video, I think 6 years ago, and wow!! My girl! Where you have taken my garden journey, what you and sweet Miah have accomplished on your garden journey. Love your Spirit, love your inspirations and I love seeing you continue to grow and share your successes and your failures. Thank you!
I love this. I found you right before your move to S Carolina, and I can honestly say that what drew me to your channel is your joy and wonder in the garden. I'm looking forward to your rekindled awe of your garden.
I love your dream for this year’s garden Jess!!! I too plan to be very intentional about growing my favorites and simplifying a little bit. No matter what you do, you always educate & inspire!!! Excited to see how it grows!❤
My “why” is beauty. My heart wants all the flowers, just for the joy of it.💐 I’ll also plant plenty of food for fresh eating because that’s so tasty and delightful too, but it’s especially the flowers that make my heart sing. They always have, since I was a little girl.
What you were saying in this video really resonated with me, even got me a little choked up…planting all your favourites, making it the garden of your heart…yes! I needed that. Last year I felt like I didn’t have ownership of my garden, even though it was me doing all the work. What I had planted…the purpose was for others, not for me. It was fine, but I had lost the joy. I want that back. This season Imma plant all my faves right along with you and see if I can get that feeling of delight back, then I can share from the overflow of my heart and garden instead of it being like a duty, an obligation. (That sounds like a good experiment to me!)
This is also mine! Fresh flowers make me so so happy and calm and my kids think I’m crazy 😂, I just want to be surrounded by as much beauty as possible, the smells of herbs when I brush past, the garden after summer rain, the buzzing of wildlife, the sun on my skin. Can’t wait! Glad to see there’s other out there like me ❤
Thank-you Jess
I’m so excited for you and grateful that you share. We all lose ourselves and self correct sometimes. And I am so excited for another garden season with you!
you expressed this perfectly. My why is fresh food, exercise, learning, providing for others, and keeping myself busy!
I cant wait to see you love your garden again, your refuge and happy place, its the best of you!
Yes ma'am. I've been here from the beginning! And when I went to Scotland in 2017 to pastor a Church, you all provided me a regular visit home!!
Oh did this ever speak to me and exactly what i really needed to hear!
15:15 into the video you said "yeahh Im growing a garden for myself" one of your cows bellowed out a MOOO it was like a trumpet! Powerful and totally made me smile big! xo
I have been here since the start ar close to it! You have been a great inspiration for my transition from a city girl to a homestead one! You and husband are great inspiration for us here in a way colder climate of Quebec Canada!
I’ve been here from the beginning. I to am not in a rush this year. Not sure if I’ll be able to plant because of my health. I say that with a heavy heart. I do know I can garden vicariously through you & your channel. Thank you
Wonderful life lessons for any endeavor we desire to achieve, and in the mist of it you will be able to find joy and rest! Thank you❤
Love that are "inviting" them to the garden. Thank you for sharing!
This will not only be my first garden season watching your channel, but my first garden season ever. My why this year is learning as much as I can, trying new things, and maybe growing some delicious food to feed my family for a couple of months. Seriously considering making an actual sign for the garden fence with my why on it so I can remind myself if I get frustrated throughout the season.
I needed this pep talk 💜💜 I have been in such a funk about gardening and need to love it again.
Been here since late 2017. Your content has been a haven in tough times. Thank you.
Yes & Amen!! ❤️
Was wiped out by flash flood last March... have a blank slate... didn't really like my first try anyway.
Everything you said resonates with me, and I'm so looking forward to what's to come.
Thank you 😊😘
Been here since close to the beginning but went back and watched everything I had missed before I found you! Love your channel and you guys!!! I have my first high tunnel 26x10x10 in my in town, neighborhood back yard and I'm so excited for it this spring!!! Keep up the videos and sharing everything you do!!! We love it all!
I am a new listener. But! When you said this is your 8th year! I immediately thought that the number 8 represents new beginnings in the Bible! You gardening from your heart ties into Jesus's heart. I just left a painful marriage two years ago. Gardening for 28 years of marriage plus ANYTHING that has to do with my interest was a lonely path. I love what you are teaching your kids this year. It touched me deeply that they have a greater chance of being kind men to their wife's heart. Also, this is what Troy Brewer in TX says about the #8 in his book
"New Beginnings
This is the number God uses to illustrate resurrection. It has to do with
new birth, new life and new creation. When God preaches on redemption and when He makes things alive again, He likes to use the number
eight in His language."
Blessings and peace on you sister! ❤
Such a timely word! Thank you!!
I cant wait to see a garden of all your favorite things 💗
Love! Jess, you are such an inspiration. Your videos and perspective are refreshing and make the world brighter. Thank you for sharing your positivity, dreams, projects and endeavors with us! Can’t stop thinking about gardening and am feeling so great about this season. It’s amazing how much there is to learn.
Jess, I found your channel and a love for gardening in 2018- I still watch your older videos that inspired me to buy my first pack of seeds and to start growing my own food :) My how far we have all come. Thanks for taking us along on the journey.
Girl, I have been with you all 8 years! I’m so overjoyed to see you go back to the basics of your garden 😊😍. Watching your very first garden tours , you had joy. I’ll be looking forward to seeing that joy again ❤️
I found you in 2019 and I'm so happy I did bc you allowed me to find me again. You brought me peace and joy when going through hard things and allowed me to have a garden when I didn't think I could. You helped me to be unapologetically me. Thank you❤
I can completely relate to you these past few years. The garden has been the sacred space I needed.
Joined and blessed to learn from you since 2018❤ thank you for the garden knowledge and the fuel in my faith.
I found you while you were in Arkansas. It was a beautiful experience. Now I enjoy you as a sensible farmer/gardener.
You are awesome and give me SO much to think about!! We “hopefully” sign for our acre homestead this Friday and I want to be ready‼️
This year after expanding my garden last fall, I’m going to make a prettier more finessed garden. And I’m using the seeds I have to start seed starting. Then I’ll buy plants at a local nursery to supplement what I don’t have. I’m going to put flowers and herbs in it. I want to love looking at it as well as loving the veggies produced. This is my 5th year vegetable gardening.
Thank you for sharing... been there, done that 🙂 This year, no more... I want to enjoy the growing food and not feel overwelmed...so i will cover up a plot this year and minimize the space we really need... I wish you a wonderfull growing year! Enjoy it and do it for you! greetings from Belgium
I've been here since the beginning
Thank you
Love your quote
Jess, when you take about being a good Steward,- for years I complained about the stupid pricker bushes on my property. Then one day, the Spirit showed my y they weren't just pricker bushes-the were actually berries!
That was the first jelly I made. Since then, I've felt led that I should look well after the ways of my household. I've expanded my garden, and this year scaled it back . I'm with you. I want to perfect and maintain what I'm trying to accomplish. Lord willing I will🙌
I love this Jess. I think things can become that way sometimes, especially when you’re so passionate about it you want to share & the sharing becomes almost demanding & overwhelming. I pray you have an abundantly blessed heart, garden & year. 🙏🏻💕
I started watching you 7 years ago and found Greg Judy and Justin Rhodes. Thank you all for a great mentorship.
This year will be my first year gardening in my new home. Building a garden felt too overwhelming so I bought a greenstalk (using your discount) and I can't wait to fill it with all kinds of things my kids and husband like! Strawberries, beans, spinach, peppers and herbs! Plus I plan on leaving a feelw spaces open to plant things throughout the season. I am trying not to be too hard on myself about not having a full fledged garden and focus on just growing things fresh, like you said! I LOVE harvesting things fresh for dinner!
You are a great teacher and I can’t wait to learn more from you this garden season!!
Inspirational as always! Been Following you for 7 years and loved every single moment of it. You have taught me so much and changed the way i look at everything in life. Much Love !
I am here with you from the beginning and still can’t wait to see your garden tours and all ❤️
Hi Jess, my why is still learning to grow something new. For instance I have never ate a home grown Brussel sprout. I am planting what makes me happy. Also teaching my family how to grow their own food. I want to grow what makes me happy, like grown flowers.
I resonate with this so much! This will be my 5th season growing a micro cut flower farm in my backyard. In the process of selling the flowers I have lost a lot of the joy. I am planning a similar standard to yours!
We've been soaking up your experiences from the beginning ❤
I've watched you for so long and have learned so much from you. On my 4th year and this year my goal is production and focus on what we eat the most. However my daughter has asked me to help her start her first garden of her own which is a small space so will be container gardening. Also my daughter in law and son have asked me to help them start their very first family garden (4 grandbabies) so definitely gonna need lots of production for them. I'm so excited my love for gardening has rooted to my kids.
Hi Jess. I have decided this year to only grow tomatoes and green beans. I have planted many things over the years. These are the 2 items I will eat. Background, single, older and I do not like to cook. I feel the burden going off my shoulders saying this. I don't raise a garden to sustain myself. I grow it because I like the way tomatoes taste fresh out of the garden. I do cook/can green beans and will eat them at every meal if needed. But thinking about this year's garden honestly makes me so happy. Also a few flowers thrown in for pollinators. Love Bev from Oklahoma
I joined during Covid. Been loving it since.
Wise girl. I feel what you are feeling, so much! I get it! Bottom line, we love you!!! I pray I can come alive again in my garden this year. I wish I could hug you! My Arkansas girl!❤🙏🏻