So you had a bad year. The bugs came, the hails smashed your plants flat,

the crops failed, maybe you don't even know why, but all you can think about is what a miserable

failure your last garden was. You started with these hopes and dreams, you had visions of

Instagram or the garden pictures and they all fell flat. And maybe you've been listening to this

podcast series on gardening and you want to be excited, but you just can't shake this feeling of

trepidation. This is a legit thing. This is a phenomenon that happens with homesteaders and

just hobby gardeners alike. And in today's episode, I am so excited because I have a very special

guest and we are going to hit this topic head on and talk about how you can navigate coming out of

a bad gardening year. We're going to get back on the horse and figure out how to keep going.

So today with me, I have Chris Daning from the homestead garden. Chris has been in love with gardening

since she was a child helping in her parents vegetable garden. She's gardened in the colder

climates of both Michigan and Wisconsin and also in sunny and warm South Carolina. She has found

ways to garden while living in apartments, the suburbs and even an RV trailer park before finally

settling down on her two acre land in upstate South Carolina. Now in addition to writing her own

blog, the homestead garden has lots of tutorials and information on how to find joy in your garden

in every season. Chris has also been my right hand woman as one of my virtual assistants for many,

many years now. And odds are, if you have reached out to me via email or had a customer support

question, you've talked with Chris. She also helps me coach our homegrown homestead community.

And honestly, she's one of the first people I reach out to. If I have a gardening question,

especially since I feel like her experience complements mine because I'm in the cold west and

she's in the warm South. And sometimes, you know, I don't really know what to do with those giant

southern bugs or what do you do when your garden gets too hot because that's generally not a

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