The Messed Up Gardener

It’s Twixmas… that weird in-between week where time doesn’t exist, your diet is 80% snacks, and your garden has decided to grow 9cm overnight just to humble you.In today’s episode, I’m sharing what we’ve been up to on our little modern-homesteading adventure — harvesting elephant garlic, drying it in our very glamorous garage drying room, and turning not-quite-perfect dahlias into something surprisingly magical: air-dried petal confetti.But the real reason you need this episode?Because if you went into the holidays with big garden plans and came out the other side thinking, “I’ll do it tomorrow…” (and now it’s basically New Year)… SAME.So I’m giving you my realistic, no-guilt, real-life goal setting method:The 3-Goal Garden Rule for 2026 🌿 Plus, I share my 10-minute Garden Reset you can do anytime you’re feeling behind:✨ Don’t forget — you’ll find my free gardening guides linked below in the show notes. Whether you’re after a step-by-step plan, a cheat sheet for growing chemical-free, or even my mini lawn care masterclass, they’re waiting to make gardening easier, lighter, and a whole lot more fun.🎧 Press play, grab your notebook, and get ready to uncover the riches hiding in your garden! If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe on your favourite podcast platform so you never miss a new garden chat.And if you have a gardening question or topic you’d love me to cover, send me a message — I’d love to hear from you.🌻 Until next time: remember that gardening can happen in any space, any place, and on any budget. Have an incredibly abundant week — and I’ll buzz you later. 🐝Follow our Journey on our Facebook PagesThe Messed Up Gardener Or Shesther’s Mushrooms Or Grab ·        A Step by Step guide on how to create your own DIY self-watering plantershttps://stan.store/EstherA/p/create-your-own-diy-self-watering-garden-plantersDon’t forget to grab one of my gardening freebees.   Freebies: Grab the -         "12 Essential Tips for a Thriving Garden: From Planning to Harvest" Practical Tips to Help You Grow a Flourishing Garden -         https://stan.store/EstherA -         Organic gardening Cheat Sheet: Natural methods for chemical free cultivation https://stan.store/EstherA-         Garden Goals Planning Worksheet https://stan.store/EstherA/p/get-my-garden-goals-planning-worksheet-now-         Mini Masterclass Audio Lawncare basics which has included the Lawn care Mini Masterclass Audio & a Lawn Love Mini Masterclass Companion Guide. https://stan.store/EstherAGardening can happen in any space, in any place, and on any budget.

If your garden currently survives on “thoughts and prayers” because you’re flat out with work, life, Christmas chaos, kiwifruit, H&S… and maybe even relocating a 8m plastic house because it’s basically a solar oven… this one’s for you. 😅In this episode, we’re talking about how to design a garden for real life — not a gardening show. A garden that still looks good and produces food… even when you miss a weekend (or three).In this mini masterclass, you’ll learn:✅ What “self-maintaining” actually means (not zero work… just less work) ✅ The 3 types of “nature helpers” that reduce effort without reducing results:Groundcovers (weed blockers + moisture savers)Self-seeders (salad + herbs that return like unpaid staff)Perennials (plant once, harvest and admire for years) ✅ The big game-changing swap: bare soil → living mulch (mulch + plants = less weeds, less watering, less guilt) ✅ A simple starter plan so you can do this without turning it into a giant weekend project✨ Don’t forget — you’ll find my free gardening guides linked below in the show notes. Whether you’re after a step-by-step plan, a cheat sheet for growing chemical-free, or even my mini lawn care masterclass, they’re waiting to make gardening easier, lighter, and a whole lot more fun.🎧 Press play, grab your notebook, and get ready to uncover the riches hiding in your garden! If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe on your favourite podcast platform so you never miss a new garden chat.And if you have a gardening question or topic you’d love me to cover, send me a message — I’d love to hear from you.🌻 Until next time: remember that gardening can happen in any space, any place, and on any budget. Have an incredibly abundant week — and I’ll buzz you later. 🐝Follow our Journey on our Facebook PagesThe Messed Up Gardener Or Shesther’s GourmetOr Grab ·        A Step by Step guide on how to create your own DIY self-watering plantershttps://stan.store/EstherA/p/create-your-own-diy-self-watering-garden-plantersDon’t forget to grab one of my gardening freebees.   Freebies: Grab the -         "12 Essential Tips for a Thriving Garden: From Planning to Harvest" Practical Tips to Help You Grow a Flourishing Garden -         https://stan.store/EstherA -         Organic gardening Cheat Sheet: Natural methods for chemical free cultivation https://stan.store/EstherA-         Garden Goals Planning Worksheet https://stan.store/EstherA/p/get-my-garden-goals-planning-worksheet-now-         Mini Masterclass Audio Lawncare basics which has included the Lawn care Mini Masterclass Audio & a Lawn Love Mini Masterclass Companion Guide. https://stan.store/EstherAGardening can happen in any space, in any place, and on any budget.

Batch Gardening — Do the Work Once, Coast All Week - How to garden like meal prep — one big push, lots of lazy wins. If you only have one decent chunk of time each week (or fortnight) to garden, this episode is your permission slip to stop feeling guilty and start gardening smarter. Esther breaks down “batch gardening” — a meal-prep style approach where you do the heavy lifting in one focused session, then let your garden quietly coast until you’re back.In this episode, you’ll learn how to:·         Use the 3 batch categories — soil, plants, and water — to make the biggest impact with limited time·         Deep-water and mulch in one go so your garden stays alive between visits (no more panic sprinkling)·         Set up pre-filled pots, trays and soil “staging areas” so impulse seedlings are plug-and-play, not a faff·         Plant one “staples bed” of reliable crops instead of 47 tiny, overwhelming experiments·         Leave “Future You little gifts” like labelled trays, pre-mixed liquid feed, and ready-to-go stakes and ties·         Let go of the guilt and still confidently call yourself a gardener — even if you only show up once a weekYour garden doesn’t need you every day. It just needs you to show up on purpose when you can.✨ Don’t forget — you’ll find my free gardening guides linked below in the show notes. Whether you’re after a step-by-step plan, a cheat sheet for growing chemical-free, or even my mini lawn care masterclass, they’re waiting to make gardening easier, lighter, and a whole lot more fun.🎧 Press play, grab your notebook, and get ready to uncover the riches hiding in your garden! If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe on your favourite podcast platform so you never miss a new garden chat.And if you have a gardening question or topic you’d love me to cover, send me a message — I’d love to hear from you.🌻 Until next time: remember that gardening can happen in any space, any place, and on any budget. Have an incredibly abundant week — and I’ll buzz you later. 🐝Follow our Journey on our Facebook PagesThe Messed Up Gardener Or Shesther’s Mushrooms Or Grab ·        A Step by Step guide on how to create your own DIY self-watering plantershttps://stan.store/EstherA/p/create-your-own-diy-self-watering-garden-plantersDon’t forget to grab one of my gardening freebees.   Freebies: Grab the -         "12 Essential Tips for a Thriving Garden: From Planning to Harvest" Practical Tips to Help You Grow a Flourishing Garden -         https://stan.store/EstherA -         Organic gardening Cheat Sheet: Natural methods for chemical free cultivation https://stan.store/EstherA-         Garden Goals Planning Worksheet https://stan.store/EstherA/p/get-my-garden-goals-planning-worksheet-now-         Mini Masterclass Audio Lawncare basics which has included the Lawn care Mini Masterclass Audio & a Lawn Love Mini Masterclass Companion Guide. https://stan.store/EstherA Gardening can happen in any space, in any place, and on any budget.

The Bare-Minimum Watering Plan — Keeping Plants Alive When You’re Running on Fumes” A realistic survival guide for tired, overcommitted gardeners.You meant to water… and then work, kids, pets, emails, and life happened. By the time you remembered, it was dark and the guilt had already kicked in.If that sounds painfully familiar, this episode is for you.In this mini masterclass, I walk you through a realistic, no-perfection-required watering plan for tired, overcommitted gardeners who still want their plants to have a fighting chance.We’ll cover:·         The Watering Priority Ladder – what to water first when you’ve only got 10–15 minutes.·         The 10-minute “Lifeline Watering Round” for scorchy, panic-inducing days.·         Lazy watering hacks like ollas, mulch, grouped pots, and simple timers that quietly do some of the work for you.·         A gentle mindset reset so you can finally believe: 👉 “If I watered something today, I did enough.”Your garden doesn’t need a perfect version of you — just the real, tired you, showing up in small, doable ways.💚 If this episode helps, take a pic of your lifeline watering round and tag @TheMessedUpGardener so I can cheer you on.✨ Don’t forget — you’ll find my free gardening guides linked below in the show notes. Whether you’re after a step-by-step plan, a cheat sheet for growing chemical-free, or even my mini lawn care masterclass, they’re waiting to make gardening easier, lighter, and a whole lot more fun.🎧 Press play, grab your notebook, and get ready to uncover the riches hiding in your garden! If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe on your favourite podcast platform so you never miss a new garden chat.And if you have a gardening question or topic you’d love me to cover, send me a message — I’d love to hear from you.🌻 Until next time: remember that gardening can happen in any space, any place, and on any budget. Have an incredibly abundant week — and I’ll buzz you later. 🐝Follow our Journey on our Facebook PagesThe Messed Up Gardener Or Shesther’s Mushrooms Or Grab ·        A Step by Step guide on how to create your own DIY self-watering plantershttps://stan.store/EstherA/p/create-your-own-diy-self-watering-garden-plantersDon’t forget to grab one of my gardening freebees.   Freebies: Grab the -         "12 Essential Tips for a Thriving Garden: From Planning to Harvest" Practical Tips to Help You Grow a Flourishing Garden -         https://stan.store/EstherA -         Organic gardening Cheat Sheet: Natural methods for chemical free cultivation https://stan.store/EstherA-         Garden Goals Planning Worksheet https://stan.store/EstherA/p/get-my-garden-goals-planning-worksheet-now-         Mini Masterclass Audio Lawncare basics which has included the Lawn care Mini Masterclass Audio & a Lawn Love Mini Masterclass Companion Guide. https://stan.store/EstherAGardening can happen in any space, in any place, and on any budget.

Stop waiting for perfect conditions and grow something now.“We’ll really garden when we move.” “Once we build the raised beds.” “When I’ve got more time… next season.”If that sounds like you, this episode is your loving smack on the hand with a trowel. 💚 We’re talking about the gap between the perfect garden in your head and the scruffy reality out the back — and how to start now with just one messy square metre.In this episode, you’ll learn how to:·         Spot the “Someday Garden” trap that keeps you stuck in planning.·         Find and claim your 1m² “Now Patch” in the space you already have.·         Fill it with forgiving plants that don’t need perfect conditions (herbs, leafy greens, “chuck it in and see” crops).·         Set up simple micro-systems (mulch, mini compost habit, quick watering routine) so it actually survives.·         Shift your identity from “someday I’ll garden” to “I garden now”, even in the middle of chaos.If this episode nudges you into action, hit follow/subscribe, leave a quick rating or review, and tag me on socials with #TheMessedUpGardener and a pic of your Now Patch. Mud, kids, dogs, and gumboots all welcome. 🌱🐝✨ Don’t forget — you’ll find my free gardening guides linked below in the show notes. Whether you’re after a step-by-step plan, a cheat sheet for growing chemical-free, or even my mini lawn care masterclass, they’re waiting to make gardening easier, lighter, and a whole lot more fun.🎧 Press play, grab your notebook, and get ready to uncover the riches hiding in your garden! If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe on your favourite podcast platform so you never miss a new garden chat.And if you have a gardening question or topic you’d love me to cover, send me a message — I’d love to hear from you.🌻 Until next time: remember that gardening can happen in any space, any place, and on any budget. Have an incredibly abundant week — and I’ll buzz you later. 🐝Follow our Journey on our Facebook PagesThe Messed Up Gardener Or Shesther’s Mushrooms Or Grab ·        A Step by Step guide on how to create your own DIY self-watering plantershttps://stan.store/EstherA/p/create-your-own-diy-self-watering-garden-plantersDon’t forget to grab one of my gardening freebees.   Freebies: Grab the -         "12 Essential Tips for a Thriving Garden: From Planning to Harvest" Practical Tips to Help You Grow a Flourishing Garden -         https://stan.store/EstherA -         Organic gardening Cheat Sheet: Natural methods for chemical free cultivation https://stan.store/EstherA-         Garden Goals Planning Worksheet https://stan.store/EstherA/p/get-my-garden-goals-planning-worksheet-now-         Mini Masterclass Audio Lawncare basics which has included the Lawn care Mini Masterclass Audio & a Lawn Love Mini Masterclass Companion Guide. https://stan.store/EstherAGardening can happen in any space, in any place, and on any budget.