Just bought my house!!! Plenty of room for a chicken coop and a garden. Cellar has plenty of room to start a real pantry. I'm SO excited!!!

When I saw this video had been released it was exactly 5 minutes until the moment I was born 50 years ago. I sat back, pressed play and in those first few sentences you spoke about so much that is in my heart right now. Winter can be long, and your garden seems a million miles away. Seasons do change, but it’s how you prepare & deal with those changes that matter. And only with age, comes wisdom. Even though you didn’t know it Rachel, you shared a special moment with me. Now, when I look back at turning 50, I will remember this time, this dead of Winter ❄️ but planning for Spring. This friend I have in you, and have had for the last 3 years since I found you, all the while you have no idea how much you have helped & influenced my way of life & attitude to food & growing. Thank You so much, you & Todd both. I look forward to seeing both our gardens flourish next year. Much love 💕 Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 UK

Years ago an older lady told me while standing in front of a seed display. Plant Dill and sweet peas together. They are good companions. They Protect and nourish each other. I’ve done it every year since with success.

Dill does best when seeded directly in the garden. It doesn't like to be transplanted. It also is highly sensitive to salt in the soil right before and after germination. This can cause it to be stunted as it grows or even kill small seedlings. Since most animal manures are high in salt (even if it's been well composted...composting doesn't remove salt) and you use a lot of cleanout bedding from your goats and chickens, I suspect that this could be the cause of smaller plants. You might want to try to grow it in a pot or grow bag that you fill with soil that you don't add anything to that would increase the salt in that soil. Also, keep it well watered.

I plant the mammoth dill also. I work the area very early ( before anything else) and scatter the seeds thick and rake in. They always come up no matter how cold the weather is here in MI. I also water carefully after they sprout, & tie thin cord around the whole patch with posts to help support the long stems. I start clipping heads as they get to the sz I like and they will sprout new heads all summer. Some seeds will winter over and will sprout with the first warm weather. I freeze the heads until I am ready to use them.

I typically turn videos on in the background - today I was actually doing so to work on my own garden planning. Once it started though I could help but put my notebook away and watch. I lost my grandmother when I was young and have discovered my love of gardening as a young adult. She loved plants, many of my photographs of her are in her greenhouse. Your energy reminded me so much of her. I wish she was still around to plan with me, but your video was such a comfort. 🥲💜

I grew red noodle beans this past year and we love them! Be aware though that the wasps and yellow jackets love them too. They like to drink nectar (?) or something that the plant exudes at the tops of the beans. The good thing is they seem to get a little slow and drunk off it so they aren't aggressive but they will rudely stare at you while you try to pick the beans :)

A joyful garden sounds wonderful. I live in zone 9b southwest Florida, so I garden year-round, but wintertime is the best time to garden here. One of the things that bring joy to me in my garden is my herbs. So this winter, I am adding a small raised herb garden out my back door for easy access for cooking meals. Another thing that brings me joy in my garden is to have an esthetically pleasing, eye-catching garden. Happy gardening in 2024.

Last year we expanded my garden and I grew my biggest garden yet. However, it was a rough year with the intense Texas heat and drought as well as missing most of the summer harvest season due to taking care of my sick, elderly mom. She has passed away now and I know this next season will be a bittersweet one for me. Happy to be able to fully devote my time and energy into the garden and preserving its harvest again, but sad that I won’t have my mom to talk to about what I’m planting, growing and harvesting. As a gardener herself, she was thrilled that I had finally learned to love gardening and the past few years she kind of lived vicariously through me. So this year I will miss her, but dedicate my efforts to her memory. I hope that I have another amazing season.

I’ve never not grown butternut! This year I grew buttercup for the first time, it’s now my favorite. My dill gets like 4’ tall. No secret. I don’t fertilize my herbs, either. 🤷‍♀️ I got two Giant Crimson started this year but only one made it! I got an almost 2 lb tomato from it but only about 4 tomatoes on the vine. The yellow beefsteak from MIgardener was so meaty, it made my sauce fantastic! You’re going to need at least an acre of hard white wheat berries for a years worth of flour. You bake as much as I do too. Or so it seems. I’ve learned from 40 years of gardening. We have 42 acres. Our garden is one acre. Except for the hay and wheat. Happy holidays to you and Todd!

I loved seeing your eyes light up talking about your garden planning this year. I know you will love the red noodle beans but I don't think they will be great for canning so I definitely would plant some Bush beans along with them. I planted Asparagus last year because of the fear I couldn't grow it and I was absolutely amazed how easily it grew. Be sure and soak your asparagus seeds overnight.. I can't wait to see your garden grow. God is Good Northeast Arkansas here zone 7a.

Yes, getting my hands in the dirt is the best feeling!

I go through my seeds early December and record every variety I have. Then I can go though the list when I'm planning what to plant.

Hi Rachel. What an amazing video you did today. I am looking forward to next year's garedning. It is going to be fun. Thank you Rachel for sharing. God Bless you and hope you had a wonderful Christmas 🎄🎁. Have a Blessed New Year 🎊. Love you. Hugs. Mari'a.👍👍🤗🤗❤️❤️🌶️🍅🤗🤗🤗🤗❤️❤️❤️❤️💙💙💗💗💖💖💜💜💜

You’re planning already, and I’m so glad to have a season of rest when I don’t have to think about it, so I am ready come April….

So happy for you to be back in the garden!

so excite to see you back in the garden again. happy planning.

I am so happy to see you talking about the garden again! I think your season of rest came at the best possible year for you with all that happened last year. Happy growing!

My favourite time of year is when all the seed catalogues start arriving in the mail LOL. I planted garlic this year for the first time, really hoping it works. I planted strawberries last year too and they did ok for a first year.

Yes! I’m ready! Dreaming of the 2024 garden and am ready to put those dreams on paper. So exciting!! 😃

I love listening to your videos. You seem so calm and relaxed today. I showed my husband a video about allowing squash to grow upward on a teepee -like trellis. He did it this past year, and it worked VERY well! I loved it so much because it not only allowed me to walk and gather without getting soaked and stepping on the plants, but harvesting was so easy. The plants took SO much less garden space. He also did this with the zucchini varieties. I learned it from Next Level Gardening. My hubby has always let some dill go to seed, and it falls where it may. Saves seeds also, spreads some in Fall. It's 5-6 feet every year. Waters every morning and evening(on timers). Butternut is fantastic. Acorn is ok. A blue Hubbard was not great. Northern Idaho panhandle. Thank you.

The trick to great dill is to move up here next door to me. Grows great up here.❤

Yes, Dixondale is great! I have been getting my onion starts from them for a few years now. Reasonably priced, good varieties and I’ve had good luck growing their starts.

Thank you so much. Words of my heart as well. I put your planner in my cart I’m thinking of getting one for my son and daughter. I purchased greenstalks for two of my three kids for Christmas. They’re beginners ❤ They will probably be in competition 😂

I also always save all my seeds from the fruits. There’s an abundance in every fruit.

I've really enjoyed this video and listening to the planning of your garden. I agree, it is wonderful to sit down and take a breath after all the activity of the holidays have past and start planning. ❤

Your dedication sparks transformation! - "Persevere on the journey..."

Thanks for sharing! Our holiday company leaves tomorrow morning and this Maine gardener will be pulling out seeds in the afternoon! I also love growing many varieties of tomatoes. There are tried and true varieties that are included each year but also love adding new. Here's to another wonderful year of gardening!

Good morning ☕ I've grown the red long beans. They're more suitable for frying rather than boiling, tend to get rubbery in water. Hope this helps. Good luck with this year's garden 😀

YES!! I’m doing the same thing. Getting what I need ready. I am in Texas. Seed starting starts in the next week for so many things. My tomatoes will go in beds March 30th. They will be done for the most part by mid July. It gets very hot. I can continue the cherry tomatoes with shade cloth, otherwise the blooms just drop. I can’t wait for my dirt therapy to start.

Tip to germinate 🌺 hibiscus seeds-no need to scarify. Damp paper towel inside zip lock bag and place on seed tray using heat mat. I covered with lid also. Sprouted in two days. I use to have difficulty with dill. I grew several varieties and now it reseeds. This year I wanted more leaves and there are several bouquet type and they seemed to like a bit of shade. Try throwing some seed in different places.

Great video! Besides spring itself the best part of winter is planning for the spring garden!

You have such a beautiful garden with your vegetables and flowers. My father always grew a garden, but never planted flowers in the garden. So last year, I planted Zinnas in my bean raised beds. They looked so pretty and did help with the bugs. We live on four acres in a subdivision. But our ground is very rocky and clay dirt. We have three raised beds that I plant our green beans and last year I was able to can 40 quarts. We plant a pole bean that yields very well, the name is FORTEX. They are a very long bean with a very small bean in the middle. They taste wonderful. This year, I want to also plant Blue Lakes and just mix them, together they taste really good. My husband bought me a little greenhouse. I am still learning what and how to work it, as it does have a fan to control the heat, just do not have any way of growing in the winter to keep it warm unless we run a heater to it. It is a work in progress and I love it.

Thank you so much for this resource! I have never been good at planning and I told hubby I wanted this book to help me plan better. I got it for Christmas! 😊 As I flipped through it I realized what a blessing this planner is going to be and what a great deal it is! May God bless your planting season this year!

A seller at a famer's market told me to seed dill very thick. I did that two years ago, and last year I had a ton of volunteer dill. Hope that helps. 😊

I have to tell you 2022 was a year I barely got around with cancer surgery and months of chemotherapy,but I managed to garden (only raised beds) if I hadn’t seen your video on freezing tomatoes I don’t know what I would have done! It meant when I was stronger I could have fresh tomato sauce and enjoy it. Last year my husband battled heart issues so again I froze tomatoes and now I’m making sauce thank you so much for sharing.

Something else I'm planning along with what i want to grow is easy meals! I want some easy meal ideas in my pocket for the days I need to spend more time on garden stuff and less time in the kitchen!

For dill= cool weather, part shade, and ignore it 😅

I am so ready for this coming garden season!! I just hope it's not re prosperous...this years sun just roasted my garden.

My first vegetable garden was a total flop. Only the corn grew, and the deer ate it 😢 This year my daughter turned 2. She LOVES fresh veggies. We built raised beds and planted the veggies she enjoys. It was such a success and she enjoyed helping so much! I need to look into our fruit options. I think I will add flowers too. She will enjoy that 😊

Best results I've had growing large dill plants is plant them in oversized containers to accommodate their extra-deep tap roots.

I got the garden planner for Christmas! I love it!

Please, this year, make a video explaning how you manage your tomatoes. They are always so healthy, green and full of leaves !

Hi Rachel, I also had trouble growing dill and was pleasantly surprised when I tossed in the leftovers of a seed packet in fall. Looking forward to the growing season and your gardening videos. Thanks a million for all the insights and all the best for 2024!

I’m so glad you talked about having a joyful garden! That hit my heart dead-on. Gardening the last two years has felt like nothing but hard work. Yes I’m proud of the work - but it hasn’t been very joyful for me / - that will be my priority goal this year! Yes I want a productive garden and I want to start making my raised beds a high intensity yield bed - they’ve been given lots of room and not utilized well… but Joyful first!

Rachel I missed you in my garden so much last summer. Welcome back. I love to plant alongside you because our locations are so near that we have the same weather.

I just came across your channel and I am so grateful that I did. xoxoxo

Are you ready to have a super fantastic garden this year 😀 👏 😍 I'm excited for this year....missed all of your happy videos....now have you gardened by lamps at 4 am???....lol things we do when we run out of daylight 😂😂😂😂 I plant a very long row of dill. I put garden lime down in the spring....I water so it always stays moist and near tomatoes. I fertilize tomatoes the most so I'm sure the ground has some runoff...yes hard white wheat berries great idea!! Good airflow is important....tall, short for a few feet then you can go tall plants again ❤

Now I am all Excited to get my seeds out!!! Next week!!!!!

Well you've definitely got me inspired to start planning my garden 😊 thank you for sharing some of the varieties you like to grow. I enjoy your videos and you have also inspired me to can more soups! And I found a big roaster like yours at a second hand store for $20! I'm on the other side of Michigan near Lake Michigan. Lots of sand here.

Great tips for organizing, Thank you. Timeline 5:20 looks like my dinning room. Along one wall a tall table hubby put plywood on, full spectrum light suspended w/chain. I wanted more basil from seeds I saved and got it. Fresh organic parsley plants from grocery store too. He ties it and tacks them near back door. Fresh or dry I'm set for cooking for awhile.

Key to dill is plant as early as possible. Zone 8- I plant in the fall and it gets huge. with our heat the show is over around the end of May.

My garden goals are growing in mental and physical health peaceful surrounding for abundance to share with others. Set up my seed station so I can be on time. Grow only what I’m going to eat. Journal more as well. 🙏❤️🙏

Yes I got my 1st order from MI Gardener. And still trying to get from homestead heart love her seeds. She’s always sold out. For $1.50 seeds packets.

I love growing butternut squash!

Thanks, Rachel for the reminder to order my onion sets!

I’m so excited to follow your garden journey this year. I very much missed all the garden videos last year, but also did appreciate Todd’s valiant efforts to fill that gap in interesting ways during your absences. I am returning to my garden full blast, after a very iffy last season due to hip surgery in May. Wishing you joy in your garden this year, Rachel.

This year, we are building a new place from scratch. It's pretty daunting trying to build a good garden from nothing but rocks and red clay, but hopefully, we will get some kind of harvest to tide us over until we can afford soil and lumber to build raised beds. Being in the city is really messing with my garden plan because I need to get a survey to find the power lines and utilities. I think we're already down several berry bushes and a few fruit trees due to cable placements. Bummer.

We're starting to plan/dream too! It's exciting! I don't live too far from you guys and red noodle beans are regularly in my garden. We LOVE them! On an arched trellis they remind me of a beaded curtain. Delicious as a fresh or canned bean and as a dry bean, they taste like black eyed peas! Amana Orange tomato is also delicious! Last year I grew loofah for the first time and although our season isn't technically long enough, we got appx 20 sponges and even more of the small ones that were edible (and delicious!)

Next couple years are going to be rough. Grow food to preserve, become self sufficient. Most aren't gardening simply for joy, they're growing to feed their families as the world descends into madness.

I have an extremely limited space to grow. I try to garden fully around house in any available place. I like doing things with containers. I haven't gardener in 12 years since my pulmonary embolism. So this year will be my 1st time in while. ❤

I have been growing butternut squash for the last 4 years here in VA. They grow really well vertically & I cut away the excess green leaves to ensure all the flowers are exposed for easy access for pollinators to get to the flowers. You only need to grow 52, which is one a week for your family for a whole year & they store very well. I have 12 raised beds & i make a vertical 6ft teepee between the two raised beds to use vertical space between two beds. Waltham is a good one! Happy New year to you both! Thanks for all you share with us!

Hi 😊. No secret to dill … I just sprinkle seeds lightly rake into soil. I plant mine early and keep soil damp not soaked til I see sprouts. I also plant mine in full sun ….the more sun the better.

I have to start from scratch this year because we just moved. First I have to decide where to put the garden, if I want to plant in ground this first year or build beds, and what will grow over here by Lake MI. At my home 300 miles west, my garden did so well and I started all my seeds indoors. Dill was a funny thing for me. I just threw a packet of seeds in a raised bed 10 years ago, and they ALL grew huge!!!! Then they would go to seed, drop them and start fresh plants that got huge also. I was constantly pulling old stalks, and collecting seed. I just put a few of those back in that bed every year and I have always had dill running out my ears. I collected thousands of seeds this fall and brought hundreds of packs to church to share. I hear people having issues with dill, but that is one thing I've always had plenty of. I hope it does that well over here. I am so excited to start, but this windy area is new to me, and I'm sure I will make tons of mistakes this year. BUT, can't wait!!!!

Yes to butternut, excellent winter storage crop. Try Canadian crookneck squash also/instead It has a smaller seed cavity so you get more produce per squash and I found they are just as prolific. I found that the dill I plant purposely never grows to that mammoth size as advertised but if I let a few go fully to seed and over winter, come spring these grow and are truly georgeous specimens. Must be that they will be the ones that can acclimate to my conditions. I haven’t had to plant dill in years and always have an abundance of mammoth plants that start earlier too.

So exciting!!!!!

I was just doing to same. First time gardening on this property so that's exciting. I wish you all the success in 2024 🥰

I love the planning/dreaming season!

Rachel, consider growing your cucumbers to climb on a cattle panel. Its great and doesn't take up your ground space

The year I got the 6 foot tall dill “tree,” it was the plant I started during the winter inside to try and have dill inside until the garden was back. Get some dill into a pot inside now and do whatever you do to add fertility to the soil about once a month. The head start is worth it. Starting from seed in the garden never got me plants more than a foot high.

Sounds wonderful

I hope you have success with artichokes. I planted, grew big, so we decided the first year we would let flower since the flowers are so pretty...this plant attracted so many pest, but mainly leaf footed bugs and apparently a type of aphid that yellow jackets love. I couldn't wait to dig that baby up and throw away. Maybe plant away to a section by itself.🙂🤞

Exciting !

Yes o love them carrots 🥕..I have gotten better at carrots

I love, I am so excited for this journey with you. Thank you for creating the Garden planner! It was a gift for Christmas 🎄

Hi , Hope u had an amazing christmas And happy new year ,from our home to yours Hope 2024 is a very good year for u both

Hi Rachel! I love your channel! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and I wish you a Happy New Year! God Bless!!

I love learning from you thank you

We are getting ready to take inventory of our canned goods to see what vegetables we need to plant this growing season. Love the varieties of vegetables you are planting!!

I am getting excited about the new season coming up. Thank you for the reminder to check my seeds.

1st Spring coming up as a retiree! I am so looking forward to having the extra time. I can't wait! Looking forward to Canuary also to restock my shelves.

Love this video! I'm in Eastern Ohio and I was just thinking today that I needed to sit down and get my garden drawn out to see what I wanted to plant where. 😊 Now I know I have to!! Lol 😅😅😅 Last year was my first time doing a high intensity garden! In 2023, I grew more than 2,000 plants in my garden! More than I ever thought I could ever do! I bought a book for square foot gardening and a square foot gardening tool to help me maximize the space in my garden. WOW RACHEL, I was just BLOWN AWAY at HOW MUCH FOOD I COULD ACTUALLY STUFF IN MY GARDEN!!! Our garden is 60x30. We extended it this past year about 20'. I started everything from seed in my basement then took them out to my 13x 10 greenhouse we built 8 years ago out of pallets, 2x4s, 4x4s and screws!... 42 celery plants, 100 green pole beans and 100 yellow pole beans, 200 tomato plants, 60 pepper plants (8 varieties), 20 brussel sprouts (2 varieties), 20 broccoli (2 types), 20 cauliflower (4 different types), 3 cabbage, 30 red potatoes, 10 purple potatoes, 300 onions, 8 different herbs, 9 purple asparagus, 2000 garlic seeds, 9 different kinds of lettuce, 2 kinds of spinach, 14 birdhouse gourds, 54 pumpkin plants, 14 varieties of sunflowers, and over 200 carrots using 4 varieties! 😮😮😮Phew! This year was the busiest year ever! I do a lot of home canning but I also work and take care of family members outside of my home. Hopefully for the new year I can just concentrate on a few things. I seen that you have a bag that you keep your seeds in. You should invest in a 3-in to 4 in binder with plastic sleeves that can hold baseball cards to keep all of your seeds in! I did that last year to keep me organized because I have seeds all over my house in packets stuffed here and there! 😂😂😂 This little binder keeps me organized and I can put my seeds in alphabetical order to find them fairly quickly. I keep my herbs & medicinal plants separated from my fruit and vegetable seeds. I used to put my seeds in a bag and in a shoebox but my seed stash just exploded! Lol. I purchased a garden binder off of Amazon and it came with the clear sheets to put your seeds into. Needless to say I need more of them!😂😂😂 Thanks so much for the inspiration and information! We all were just learning to be the best gardeners we can possibly be! Learning from each other, helping one another and growing as an individual and a group. 😊

Hi! So, we love the red noodle beans but, at least in our opinion, they don't work as a green bean replacer for canning purposes. The texture seems to become odd and off-putting when you can them. Eating them fresh as sauteed beans is the way we enjoy them best. I've found that there are a multitude of ways to season them in the pan or just with using butter or oil and it's still very tasty. For food preservation purposes, we snap them into the size we want and put them in a food saver bag in the freezer. Don't wash them before you freeze them. Wash them when you get them out of the freezer, and they still sauté up really well that way. That trick was in an older video from Whispering Willow Farms with regular green beans and it held true for us for the noodle beans.

Glad to see you’re back in garden mode. I have missed your garden and preserving. 😊

My dill that self seeds always gets the biggest. For me, it is one of the things that gets going even before everything else (even peas!). It gets going before I even prepare my beds for planting. Last year I carefully prepared the bed around it. I think it just had enough time to get big before it got too hot for it.

I can’t wait to garden this year! I’m going to try gardening different varieties of tomatoes as well!

I am so so excited for your garden!!! I can't grow a garden so I live through your garden!!! I look so forward to the coming year!!! Happy New Year!!! God Bless Us All!!!

I love the word/theme idea and now I’m starting to think of mine.

Got your garden planner from my son for Christmas! Can’t wait to dig into it😊

I've enjoyed your video today! Quite relaxing and uplifting. Lisa sent me, I'm looking forward to Canuary ,

Butternut squash babies, about 4” long and tender skinned, cut up and fried are creamy delicious if you get a lot.

Yeah- I’m so excited to see you getting ready after this year of rest.🤗. I’m currently planning my garden as well👍

So excited to start seeds! Hard for me to wait but I learned the hard way that it's best to do so! I love to watch and learn from you so excited you will be planting again❤

Wishing you and your family a Happy Healthy and Blessed New Year 🎉and a Merry Christmas from Virginia Beach ! Pretty tree next to you. Hope and Joy are the number one need in our world. Gardening brings so much of this along with a fulfilled need for food. Thankyou for sharing.

We only have a small area for a garden since we live in town. Hoping to buy land one day and have a giant garden! That’s my dream. ❤ Your selections look wonderful. Happy planning and planting❤

I just finished watching pt. 2 of your 2023 garden planning and watched pt. 1 last night while canning some beans. So glad your new video popped into my feed. Watching your 2023 videos are helping me to be more level headed and focus on growing staple vegetables. My eyes get big and I want to grow everything 😂, but that isn’t wise. I plan to extend my gardening space from 5 raised beds to adding 2 Greenstalk planters, plus several grow bags.

Looking forward to the wheat! I hope you let us follow along on that one!

I just purchased your garden book! I am so excited to get it and start using it. :-)

I’m so excited to get my garden planner and I can’t wait for January 3rd for it to arrive from what you’ve explained it seems like it’s going to be very easy to use 😊 thank you Rachel and I hope your garden is abundantly blessed in 2024😉💜

It will be great to garden with you again this season! And you are so right regarding tomato diversity for sauces, salsas and fresh eating. So many flavor profiles people miss out on because they may be afraid to try something new. Thanks for the update.