The wild garden diaries | secret garden courtyard

A bedraggled tour with twigs in my hair

This year, I will be sharing regular video diary entries from my garden. Little snippets to show you what I’m getting up to. Usually, these will only be available to members of the Wild Garden club, but through January I’m sending them out to all of my subscribers. Want to join the club and receive exclusive garden goodies for the rest of the year? Click the button below and upgrade your subscription to ‘Wild Garden Club member’ to get instant access to the full archive of recipes, videos, podcast episodes and garden guides for 2024.

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Ahoy hoy my leafy friends! It’s January 4th and I am beyond excited to announce that 2024 appears to be the year I finally CONQUER TECHNOLOGY!!

It’s also going to be the year I overcome a very specific form of procrastination - the kind where you want to make something *just right* and as a result you never actually do it.

I have been wanting to share videos of my garden with you for years! But a combination of technological bewilderment and procrastination held me back. Well, no more! I am pleased to report that although we are only 4 days into the new year I have already done two things:

1. I have worked out how to embed videos into my newsletters (!!!!)

2. I have accepted that I will never be clean, sweatless or put together in these videos.

That’s right. We are entering the era of grotty garden video content and I am excited.

Part of me (the part that still carries the lingering dream of having my hair nicely done and not in a perennially bedraggled bed bun) wanted to make my first video some kinda arty, aesthetically pleasing tour of the garden (there will be many future garden tours btw), but then I thought, “what did I actually spend all Christmas doing?”. Why, I spent it covered in garden detritus and pond scum, laying bricks, shifting pathways and digging in the dirt with my hands in worn out, soggy gloves.

So that’s what I’m sharing first.

Quick note: After January, my garden videos will, for the most part, be available exclusively to members of my Wild Garden Club. Here’s a little info about the club:

The Wild Garden club

The Wild Garden Club is an online resource for imperfect gardeners - like me - who really just want to have fun outside. To feel joyfully inspired to grow things. No pretentious gardening waffle, simple guides to grow healthy gardens, lists of plants I love, seasonal recipes to cook from your patch, monthly podcasts, weekly emails and plant rants, book recommendations, Q&As and, yes, plenty of videos of me barefoot and unkempt in the garden.

If you’re not already a member and you’d like to receive all of that, you can get instant access to all of my members-only content by clicking the button below and selecting “Wild Garden Club member”.

If you are already a paying member for my newsletter (paying $50/year or $6/month) but would like to join the club, you can upgrade your membership in your settings on the Substack website (click the button below and head to your settings).

Through January I’ll be sharing some of the member-only content with all of my subscribers, so you can have a preview of the sorts of things you’ll get if you sign up, (and don’t worry, if you’re a free subscriber you will still get your weekly/biweekly email from me about all things gardening), but if you’d like to see every muddy, grubby plant filled piece of content I put out this year, consider joining the club.

Now, onto today’s garden tour!

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Got any questions for me?

I want to know what you’re keen to learn, what plants you’d like to know more about, what recipes you’re cooking, what seeds you’re sowing and how I can help you grow a more beautiful garden.

Pop your questions, comments and general musings below, and let’s chat!

Until next time

xx Casey

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