On the other end of the spectrum, well maybe not a direct line from Dowding, is Garden Answer, also on Insta and YouTube.
She and her husband are from a family that runs a garden center. I think they’re in Ohio? She posts a lot of garden-craft videos as well as straight gardening stuff. Her 2-acre home spread is to die for and so bloody perfect, I can’t watch all the time because I get depressed.
She has, like, a palatial greenhouse, major earth-moving equipment to accomplish her landscaping, and a totally flat space (whereas we are half-rappelling off a cliff to get stuff done and constantly levering out boulders with a crowbar).
She recently did a video of her parents’ property and it was even MORE dreamy. I love inspiration as much as the next person, but none of the stuff on her videos is even aspirational for me. Our property and budget are just too different.
Oh it moves! He will just have to not use it while the deck project is going on. Tomato and eggplant truck!
My deck is my garden space because the rest of the yard is too close to NGPA. I managed to grow a gazillion of pounds of tomatoes last year. Still have some frozen, chopped tomatoes from that crop in the freezer!
What is NGPA?
And I hear you on the gazillion pounds of tomatoes - I grew way too many beefsteaks and not enough paste tomatoes, so I need to change that equation. We are down to our last jar of sauce!
Oh, does that mean you have critters? We have deer overload and had to roll out hundreds of feet of 6-foot steel fencing (Tractor Supply rolls) before even attempting this garden.
This is it. There were a few duds. Have planted flowers, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant so far. Most are headed to my community garden plot with some flowers staying home.
I wish I lived in a warm climate (which it seems like you do). I live in Zone 5–and I love fig trees. I’ve purchased several over the last few years and both of them have died when I brought them inside. I don’t have a greenhouse, but do have a warm sunroom where I keep lots of plants. Any tips for keeping a fig tree alive when you bring it inside. I water, fertilize, and keep it warm to no avail!!
I have a suggestion, let it go dormant outside, then bring it into an unheated area for the winter and water it sparingly. You should strive to keep it dormant over the winter and then bring it back outside in the spring and let it naturally awaken and start growing again. I would not try to keep it growing over the winter. Let it lose its leaves and go dormant then keep it that way. That should work just fine for you.
I have several seedlings that I did that with. I am now allowing them to leaf out inside and will set them outside when the temperatures warm up.
I have a plumeria obsession! I brought so many sticks from Hawaii, but they would never take off. Finally, my plumerias are doing better and even flower once in a while. One did come
from Hawaii, the other one is from a nursery in San Diego delivered by Amazon.
I’m still a fig newbie so I have no helpful suggestions for keeping a fig tree alive indoors during the winter. I’ve only grown them outside in the ground and I only have 2 fig trees…translation: I don’t really know what I’m doing and I’m still figuring things out.
I’ll try that and will tell H that I have learned something new about keeping it inside and dormant through the winter when he complains that I’m buying another fig tree!!
We are really a good month out from any serious outdoor gardening work, but we had a warm day on Saturday, so H and I got out and did some yard cleanup. Cut back our rose of sharon hedges and magnolia trees. Cleared out the flower beds and scratched up the grassy areas and threw down some seed. I noticed that the allium bulbs I picked up in the rando aisle at Aldi last fall survived and are starting to sprout. I couldn’t resist buying them, even though I’m not sure Aldi is known for gardening goods, because it is always nice to find something the deer won’t eat (allegedly).
He will just have to not use it while the deck project is going on. Tomato and eggplant truck! 
