Western Themed Event

Hey Everyone,

Thank you for being awesome followers and viewer’s of my blog.

I’ve been fairly busy with Notefull Living, but not on my blog as much. Here’s an event I was a part of planning, since the fall of last year. It was fun to do something for the community.

Community is a big part of who I am. To help raise funds for the local youth is even better.

Our Friends run the local club and invited us last year to the fundraiser. We signed up to help for next year. When I saw the theme was western I knew to jump in and help. I was super excited to use my creative gifts. Here’s how it turned out.

By the way – I had an amazing team to help plan this. I’m looking forward to doing this again with them.

Here’s a glimpse at the stage Decor. We had a guitarist come play for the event and this was were he sat.

This blog post is just sharing the final results of the event. If you want a more detailed part of the process in how this was all put together comment below.

Stage

This was fun. We used what the church already had, wooden backdrop panels. It would have cost a lot extra to rent something for the backdrop. I got lots of beautiful plants from my husbands work. During our dried floral arrangement day we made huge arrangements for the stage. Plus to top off the Western look we had a local Riding Facility let us borrow a few saddles and tack for the event.

This saddle on the stage is actually sitting on my own personal tack stand. I could not get over how beautiful this saddle was.

Table Decor

This was great fun. I was insistent that the event have a level of Elegance to it. We had black table clothes. Jean cut out chargers under the wooden rounds. On the wooden rounds we made dried floral displays in vintage glass bottles with a variety of trinket like decor on the rest with beautiful octagon wooden signs.

Each table was similar but different. No 2 tables were exactly the same. I still can’t get over that the vintage bottles were from one of our team members. Her husband goes metal detecting and finds these. Probably from the gold rush days of our area. Some very OLD bottles.

Photo Booth

A huge part of the evening was the Photo Booth and a Cornhole Game. I don’t have a good photo of the Cornhole. It was handmade by someone and they were very well done.

I love how this space turned out. There was a huge line up for both things during the scheduled time they were available for guests. I love the dried flowers here!

One of my pairs of cowboy boots was here, and yes I do ride in these. I couldn’t believe how this came together. A team member from the youth ministry showed up with the huge metal tractor wheel at the time we set up. I was not expecting it, but it worked out super well.

Final Thoughts

As mentioned in the beginning this was a fundraiser for a local youth ministry. You can learn more about them with the following link.

https://www.eastfraseryounglife.com/about

If you interested in donating, you can find the link here:

https://www.eastfraseryounglife.com/donate

I also want to make mention of where the lovely saddles came from. If you don’t know, I work my day job as an Educational Assistant. I took time off the be a mom but I am back working in the classroom. I recently wanted to combine my EA skills and my love for horses and happened to learn about this place: https://discoveryequine.com/

I encourage you to check out the above links and learn more about the impact these places have for Youth in our day. It gives me hope for the difficult and confusing world we live in.

I hope you enjoyed a sneak peak into this fun community event.

I had a wonderful team that helped bring my vision board for this event happen. Thank You so much, you know who you are 😉

One last nugget to share. I have a second you tube channel where I share my Faith journey as a Christian. I tell more about my EA and Horse journey with the saddles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=KWfY2b2LuMQ

Carrie Plantinga

Home and Garden Blogger

Growing a Home and Garden Business

Hi Everyone

I haven’t shared on my blog in a while, truth is I’m busy working for multiple clients and I have gone back to working in the classroom. So I haven’t had much time to keep up with here on my website.

If you want to learn more about the client projects I have worked on you and go watch my video on my YouTube channel. While your there if I can Subscribe that would be great as well.

This Years Garden Swap is back up and Running! If you want to learn more about it go check out this blog post!

I will be updating this and making a video for it coming soon. I get LOTS of feedback about this.

Community Garden Box

How are we growing besides having a gardening clients and being busy with that? We are getting lots of reno’s completed on our home. We are ready to move forward again and get things completed.

First up – We actually busted through some walls and over 50% done building an official OFFICE for me. I’ve worked for years on my blog on my kitchen table. Recently started working online for a homeschool as an EA and got a good set up in the living room, but now with the business growing and expanding we are finally making space for me to be.

Check out the reel on Instagram to see where it’s located.

Changes to the blog and my website are around the corner here. It’s like spring cleaning, but for my website.

This has been a great creative outlet and it’s so much better to see the relief on my clients faces to be able to let them be able to love their gardens again!

Please Subscribe and we will see you again soon!

Carrie Plantinga

Home and Garden Blogger

Garden Install Reveal

I’m beyond excited to share this with you. This has been such an adventure and a joy to be able to do this. This summer I’ve be looking after 7 different gardens. This is one of them.

For the month of July, I did my first garden design and install for a client.

Before

I don’t have the best before photo’s as I was already previously working to help get the garden prepped for a landscaper, that never showed up.

I shared with her that this is an area I want to grow and expand as a home and garden blogger.

She agreed to let me do a redesign and I got to work! Together we worked out what was best for her garden. Here’s the result!

The garden had lots of overgrown boxwoods and lilacs. I’m grateful I had help removing these!

Here’s the other garden with more of them. To give you an idea how tall these are, they are at my shoulder height.

Not the best quality, but you can see had these not been nicely trimmed for many years how old these are.

A retaining wall was removed (by a family member). I cut back the California lilacs that used to be here. They were pretty much all dead. I had come to the realization I would rather deal with blackberries than those bushes. As you can see by the picture, they were very tough and strong.

Yes, there is a wheel barrow under all that. This was quite the trek to the green waste pile. My arms looked like I had a fight with a cat!

Here’s one last picture of the garden where another retaining wall was removed.

After

After lots of research and checking out local nurseries for FULL sun plants. This was a challenge, it’s later in the season and we were able to get it done. Just in time for an event they were hosting.

I still remember the first time my client smiled seeing the plants finally disappearing and how different her front yard was looking.

This photo was taken just after we finished the top soil install. What a difference!

My goal was to highlight her house. It has a similar feel with the the rounded cedars, but they won’t grow as big as the boxwoods did.

Here’s a small BEFORE shot of the same angle.

Before I pitched a garden redesign, I forgot to take a more clear before shots. Sorry some of the photo’s are blurry. Cell phones don’t always take the best photos.

I’m really happy for this turned out. The plants are small at the moment but they will in time grow and fill out.

The side of the house also got a refresh with topsoil.

So that’s it! I do hope that this post was fun to look through. I’m a sucker for a good before and after.

I’m grateful for the all the added help I had to make this project a success.

As mentioned above, this is an area we will be expanding on. More info will come soon as we work out the details.

Have a great day and Thanks for following along and reading my blog.

Carrie Plantinga

Garden Tour – 2023 – Zone 8b

Hi, Welcome to my blog Notefull Living. Today I am sharing my full garden tour. We are in the Fraser Valley in Zone 8b. My garden has been a huge part of my life that’s brought me through many tough times. Amongst all that, now I can see how far I’ve come and it brings great joy to me.

Backyard Gardens

Here is my Memorial Garden for our Daughter that passed away from a second trimester pregnancy loss. This is the first garden I worked on on our property and it’s dedicated to her. I fully missed capturing the white peonies blooming. This year we added a red Clematis. When this is in full bloom I can have better pictures of it.

I’m standing in the same spot for this next photo. We have a greenhouse (update coming soon about that). There is a nice covered patio over where I keep all the herbs in pots in a container garden.

I also love this view in seeing the veggie garden in the raised beds in the back.

I’m so happy how this turned out this year. BUT we have a huge issue with this and I have to change this AGAIN. Our neighbor cut down a willow tree and we lost ALL our shade that made my herbs grow amazing in this spot.

The second big issue is our new dog is peeing all over the pots on a steady basis. You can see the staining on the pavers. So this is all going to be changed again.

Here is another view. You can see where he’s constantly peeing and the pavers are wet.

So this space is going to become a blank canvas! What would you do with a covered paver patio? Love to hear you ideas in the comments.

I’m adding more patio planters and I’m excited how they are coming along. You can see memorial garden in the background.

Veggie Garden update!

As much as I’m Zone 8b and should be in a good gardening zone my garden is always slow to get started and then takes off. I’m waiting for the take off here shortly.

Well, My strawberry bed completely flopped and I have to pull it all out. I’m happy with the new trellis we added and this is the new raised bed that we added. I’m excited for this garden to produce more food for our family.

One of my favorite views is to stand on the deck and see the garden. Our kids made these planters at my husbands work for a kids make a planter day.

Front Yard

I’ll admit, I have yet to share much of our front yard. We’ve transformed so much of our backyard.

Not everything is in bloom when I took this but in time this will fill in and look amazing in the years to come.

This garden is actually fairly new. I got rid of the garden beside my driveway and expanded it here.

Our home is the average 1970’s cookie cutter in it’s heyday. Practical family home that has a simple, not all the bells and whistles like they make houses today.

I’ve been using my stairs as a way to change things up for the seasons and for spring and summer, pots and a collection of watering cans looks great.

That’s the end of this years garden tour. I hope you enjoyed it and it brought some peace and joy to your day.

Until the next blog post.

Carrie Plantinga

Home and Garden Blogger

Broken Dishwasher Disaster

If your here reading my blog, I take it your dishwasher broke?

I don’t have any advice for fixing your broken dishwasher. However I will be sharing our experience and what to expect.

Over 2 weeks ago, this is how the disaster hit our home. Half an hour before guests where about to arrive our dishwasher made an odd dinging sound. I was sitting in the living room and asked the kids in the kitchen where that sound came from. The said ‘the dishwasher’….

I jumped up fast as I knew that was a normal sound and sure enough when I came into the kitchen the water was pooling out from the machine onto our floor FAST. I ran and grabbed a beach towel to soak it up. My husband came into the kitchen and started pulling the cabinets apart to check the hoses. Our kitchen is OLD and the appliance is an after thought that someone added. I have hoses going through cabinets in a weird way.

No one needs an unexpected expense right now. At least this appliance is a convenience appliance and not a NEED.

Well after my handy hubby checked things over and diagnosed the problem. The dishwasher was officially out of commission. It didn’t even want to start anymore.

Turns out a part is plugged and in order to fix that we have to pull our kitchen apart. Well that sounds a bit extreme doesn’t it. Here’s why…

Kitchen BEFORE the new floor was installed

When we put our floor in, we learned our cabinets were installed wrong. My dad who is a cabinet maker said the builder cut corners and our counters are missing a piece so the height is lower then it should be.

So – Our flooring could not go UNDER the dishwasher as it should be.

The joys of owning a fixer upper home we now have a broken dishwasher disaster.

We are truthfully in a season of things breaking. I won’t get into all the things. Amongst the negative there is positive.

Life without a dishwasher means we live like it’s the early 1990’s and my parents didn’t get one until My oldest brothers moved out. Did you grow up with or without a dishwasher? My oldest brother brings up this fact that we had it ‘easy’ in the kitchen with the dishwasher when he had years of doing it by hand.

Apparently the dishwasher was invented in the 1880’s, crazy!

In all honesty it’s making us keep better attention to our kitchen. Teaching our kids how to do dishes, not just load, throw a tab in and hit a button. My dreams of a new kitchen may just be around the corner.

It is reminding me of the time our roof, hot water tank and the first dishwasher in the house died in the same week. Unfortunately the things breaking are probably MORE money we need to spend then that previous time. We got through this before and we will get through it again.

My hands are currently permanently chapped as I type this.

I’ve never done the cost savings of life with and without a dishwasher. I just know the last time this happened our water bill went down.

Life without a dishwasher isn’t terrible. People have done it for many many years prior to it being a modern day convenience. Although I think we have more kitchen items then ever before.

How about you? Do you have a dishwasher or not?

I’ll continue to take you along our home and garden journey. More to come. Subscribe and follow along this home journey with us.

Carrie Plantinga

Overcoming Reno Burnout, starting with a small paint job

Spring and summer flew by and now it’s fall. I started posting again and then got side tracked. Something I noticed through my blog stats and comments is my blog burnout post got lots of attention.

I seemed to have many people who read my blog, understand our struggle. Owning a home isn’t all happy days and always relaxing. It can be stressful not always having a finished home.

We live in the Fraser Valley, an hour or so (depending on traffic) from Vancouver. Houses are crazy expensive here, cost of living in general is high and then there’s gas and food costs insanity right now. Somewhere amongst all that my Husband and I are getting over our burnout and feeling inspired to reno again.

Overcome burnout

Get Inspired and Start SMALL

We FINALLY finished little things that have been piling up and if you follow me on Instagram you would have seem that in my stories. Nothing big to write a blog post about but something. A keyring holder, bedroom shelves and an electrical plug. I said it’s wasn’t anything to write a blog post about, but do something.

Don’t be afraid to shop around and look at items you want to add to your home. Once you know where you want to start again, set the budget aside and schedule the time. It will happen sooner then you think.

Simple Reno – Hallway Painting

Noteworthy Tip: When I said, set aside a budget…DO IT! We save money in a separate account for reno’s. We’ve owned long enough to know to have this. When we didn’t do this, reno’s count us off guard. That’s a shitty day when it happens. We finally got our account $$ up again and selected our next reno, painting the upstairs.

Step 1: We bought paint samples and painted them in important lighting areas to choose which one was best.

Step 2: I washed and prepped the walls. I learned a little trick from a Youtuber from Europe, she loves dish soap. So that’s what I used and my water was GROSS.

Step 3: Mud and Sand. My husband watched his parents do lots of Home reno’s growing up and he taps any hole in the wall with the end of a screw driver and then adds drywall mud. Follow up with Sanding the now dry drywall mud.

Step 4: Cut in the trim. I’m no pro, but I try.

Step 5: TEAMWORK. My husband and I have done lots of projects together. Since he’s tall he gets the roof trim and I do the lower stuff. We thought we were being productive with the drop sheets. We still got paint on the carpet!

Step 6: Paint! We got our kids involved on the main part of the wall and we finished the rest. My husband has high standards when it comes to renos and did the second coat. He let it dry while we left the house to avoid the lovely paint smell.

Step 7: Enjoy! We are loving the peaceful color of blue.

I’m dreaming of the carpet and trim to get done…but, it’s a dream for now. You see our kitten there, he’s done a wonderful number on our carpet. It’s not just him or his fault, our carpet was done when we bought the house. Just need to get that reno account with more money in it.

What’s Next?

We will keep painting throughout our house. I’ll take you along. I love a good before and after, I think our hallway looks amazing now. The trick is too keep our kids from climbing the walls like spider man. I’m not joking…they really do that.

My husband and I are working on a new project that would benefit my followers and those who live locally to me. I’ll be sure to keep you posted once all the details are worked out.

Until then, I hope this post motivates you in your home.

What Home DIY’s are you working on?

What would you like to improve in your home on a small budget?

Comment Below, I love connecting with people and we will see you on the next Blog Post.

Carrie Plantinga

Notefull Living Blog Update

Hey Everyone,

I thank you so much for your patience, as I have not written in a LONG time.

Where have I been? At the Barn, with the animals. That’s the short version, more on that later.

I realized I’m way overdue for a Blog Post and hasn’t published one since the new year has started and there’s lots of reasons.

Most of my viewers know I’m a stay at home mom with 3 kids. My family has needed my full attention recently and I know my blog would always be there to pick up and write again when I was ready too.

On that topic of being online and having my own website. The online space has become incredibly horrible place to be over the past 2 years.

On another personal note I am someone who naturally processes and looks at anything I’m offered…. the current world events has been slightly exhausting. I have a deeply caring heart and don’t like seeing people in pain. There’s a whole lot of healing and restoration needed in our world today.

As a Christian, I’m glad I walk with the ONE who has the power and authority to bring us through this difficult place. I share more on my Praise and Worship Coach Channel .

Home Reno Update

We are RENOVATING again!! Here’s a sneak peak. It’s small space, but it’s made a huge impact for our family. This is a never before seen area of our home. This is the basement entrance from the garage to our home.

Before

After

The shelf is reclaimed wood from the old fence on our property. My husband is super handy with tools and sanded the wood down and finished it with wax.

Here’s another angle, finally a mud room.

Still a work in progress as our home always is. My Husband jokes he is wanting a brand new home next time. We bought low in the market with a home that needed some extra work. Work it sure is.

There is lots of other things we’ve been working on. One post at a time. You get to enjoy the journey.

Blog Expanding…NEW Possibilities?

Home and Garden Consulting?

I get asked ALL the time…

‘Carrie can you help me with this space….?’

Please COMMENT if this is of interest to you? I’m still working out the kinks. I’m not a professional, just someone who loves making a home a HOME. I must add, on a BUDGET. Yes, that annoying ‘B’ word, I promise it makes all the difference.

I have several spaces and one garden plan set up with friend’s to get started and I’ll give you an update once I have more things worked out.

New Adventures

As I’ve shared earlier my family needed me and I knew my blog had to wait. During this time a blessing came into my life, a long time dream. Horses…

2021 was a year of grieving (lots of loss), chaotic weather (massive wildfires and floods) and HOPE with new beginnings. That’s best way I could describe the year. During hard times you learn who your people are.

My friend invited me in the fall to come ride her horse and aside from battling the floods and both being stay at home moms with young kids…. we are at the barn together each week.

I could easily post tones of animal photos from the adventures at the farm, especially when the evacuated cows from the BC Floods where there.

I will add this, it’s light a fire inside I thought was long gone. I look forward to start collecting my own gear to be around horses more.

I’ll end my blog post there.

I’m BACK. Feels great to hit publish! Until the next post!

Carrie Plantinga

Home and Garden Blogger

Home Renovations During Difficult Times

What a title right? However this blog post is actually a FULL circle moment here. This blog was birthed…yes, birthed from a place of grief for me.

I need to come back to doing this and that is sharing Noteworthy Tips. This Blog and my Story has had a lot do with grieving and moving forward. Home Reno’s and grieving for me…have gone hand in hand.

When I lost my Job in 2011 we lived in our townhouse that we were renovating. Bring on that sweat equity, like we are now. I was broken hearted, this job seemed like a DREAM JOB. I told my husband I was going to rip down the wall paper in the staircase. It actually came down super fast and my moment for getting my frustration out ended super quick. I’m actually super lucky the glue was old on this wall paper and it came off in sheets, instead of tearing.

When we lost our Baby at 17 weeks during pregnancy in 2014 within 3 days after giving birth we started working on projects. I mean, my husband did. I was out on the couch in pain. I remember him asking me what he could do to help me? I turned around and said, ‘put the shelves up’. He did it and this became the push to get our reno’s completed and list our townhouse on the market.

In May a close family member for a cancer diagnosis and in march 2021 we had to put down our family pet. We have had fish die, however putting out dog down wasn’t easy. I’m not up for sharing all the details. Let’s just say we learned a lot during this process and our family needs time to heal.

Just like all the other times when life gets rough, my husband and I move forward into a project. Our dog actually had destroyed the fence behind the hedge and it needed to get done. It was turning into a hazard for our kids too.

Well, speaking of difficult times. I haven’t posted much on my blog because so much horrific stuff has been happening. I’ll explain more soon.

I truthfully wrote this post intended to be published in march…Here’s the after picture of the fence.

Well…Difficult times hit harder this year then expected. Our province got hit with Wildfires which affected our summer holidays. It was a wild ride trying to get to places and a whole town burned behind us as we traveled. Just recently the town we live in got hit with MAJOR flooding. My husband spent the last couple weeks keeping his work dry and I was helping at a local farm, hosting friends who were displaced and dog sitting.

But, amongst all this…we bought some stuff for an upcoming reno. One I haven’t shared on here yet.

Amongst all the chaos this year we still found Joy. The kids got a dirt bike and we added a new family pet. Plus the year isn’t over yet and there still might be a reno that gets completed before this year is over.

Had to share this one last adorable photo of our new kitten. She came to us around Fathers Day weekend. she’s much bigger now.

It’s probably the most cliché thing to say this. When life gets difficult and you have a home like ours that needs renos. It’s ok to feel burnt out and overwhelmed.

Take a break, and keep going.

A home is a place to be in the good times and the difficult times. I have so many friends and family gutting their homes and barns from the recent floods. My heart just breaks knowing the journey they have ahead.

I just try and remember to be grateful and thankful for what we have. Even if all the reno’s aren’t done.

Blessings and a Merry Christmas.

Carrie Plantinga

Home and Garden Blogger

DIY Home Renovation Burnout

I’m finally admitting this. I haven’t blogged in a while…why? Simply put, burnout. If your reading this, then maybe that’s you too.

We have had great benefits to DIY Home Renovation. We have saved lots of money, learned a ton of skills with construction and had a great time with family doing it.

Here’s what’s happening with our house right now. We are 7 years in this home and we have gone as far as we can. We have, upgraded the kitchen floor, rebuilt the fences, deck and basement playroom. We also have done lots of painting in the kids bedrooms.

Home Renovation Burnout is real. Even if you have someone doing the renovation for you, there’s delays on materials and deadlines get bumped for example.

Or

Your like us and Do It Yourself. It’s great – save us some money, we put some sweat equity into our home. Yes, we have saved lots of money, but we are burnt out.

The only thing we had done by someone else in our basement was the carpet. Our deck, we got a quote…then we decided to do it ourselves.

The only reason why we didn’t hire a company, is because we got to built a BIGGER deck for close to the same amount we got quoted for a smaller deck.

Our deck reno we hired out the vinyl and the railing. Truthfully, the deck AND the basement still need some extra work.

We don’t like be the 90% of completion people. That’s not our style to not complete a reno…but honestly, it comes down to burnout.

DIY Home Renovation Burnout from our experience is getting the space planned out to what we need it to be, working hard at it and near the finish line we stop.

Can you relate?

Burnout happens in all areas of our lives at one point or another. When it comes to the where you live day in and day out it becomes stressful.

There is the excitement in the beginning! The planning and envisioning how it can look. Today, there is so much available to get inspired. I actually got so addicted to Interior Design magazines and TV shows I had to completely cut myself off.

I love seeing the transformation happen on other peoples homes, when it’s yours, that’s a whole other experience. The experience can be great or not so great. We did our townhouse “flip” without kids. Now we are in our home and doing reno’s with kids…not so great.

How we are managing with DIY Home Renovation Burnout?

Simple put, taking time OFF. Enjoying our family and focusing on ourselves. Our home was always LIVEABLE when we moved in. It’s just the reality of buying a fixer -upper.

We go AWAY on the weekends. Day trips or camping if we can!

Yes – can we make time to complete these last few things, absolutely. Our kids know when it’s a working weekend. Those are becoming far and few between now.

With my husband’s recent job he goes on call now. Our kids know if he’s on call that means we are working on something for the house.

Will we buy a fixer upper again – NO. My husband and I are both in agreement on this.

Is this our forever home? NO

Our dream is still property. We are praying like our friends did for property. That’s my husband checking out their 130 Acres of absolute bliss.

They recently bought a large parcel of land and are in the beginning stages of clearing it, getting the services in and next year building a brand new home.

This is still a dream, which may feel a long way off right now, but we aren’t letting go of that.

It’s sure great to visit and cheer/support our friends.

What’s next for our Home?

Yet again our home has dictated that for us. Our good old fixer upper sprung a leak again.

This is in a part of our home I haven’t shared on the blog…..yet. It’ll make for a great transformation photos I promise you that.

I actually had a great before and after for one of the areas and our home AGAIN was non stop with water leaks…and here we are again.

Can you guess what our next reno is?

Some way, somehow the funds become available and we plug along.

Good thing we live super frugal lives. People are always shocked when I share some of the things we do.

The joys of homeownership.

Hopefully the burnout feeling ends soon and we get our energy back. We simply can’t live with another possible flood in our house. I’ve stopped a few. Good thing I’m observant.

I’m off on another getaway adventure. Yes – I’ll be taking you all along on the journey of that next reno. We choose the DIY life and have learned a lot and now it’s time to keep resting and saving for the next reno.

Carrie Plantinga

Vegetable Garden Planning

Hello! Lots is happening here at our home in the Fraser Valley of Beautiful BC., Canada. Technically we aren’t allowed to leave our area so we have been working hard at our backyard and garden.

This year I’m actually being somewhat organized. More then I ever have, and I’m already noticing a huge difference. Always write your goals down as to what you want to do for you garden (or any project) and get to work.

Yard Preparation

First things first…FIX MY MISTAKES. I wrote a raised bed mistake blog post last year. I was NOT doing another year with an invasive plant coming up.

I dug down and buried cardboard like I should have done and so far nothing has come back up.

Next, We made MORE GARDEN SPACE. I have a BIG goal of making our property a suburban homestead while still having space for the kids.

I can’t wait to share the final reveal for this area. It’s changed so much already. If you watch the video at the end of this post on YouTube you will see more of what we did.

Here’s how the raised bed is today. It’s needs some maintenance for weeding but no more invasive plant.

DIY Vegetable Garden Planning

Anyone else just throw some seeds in pots and water and hope for the best? This is how I used to be. I just bought seeds and just went with it. Not this year. I felt strongly last year for plant more and learn a better way to grow food for my family.

This is the most simple and EASY way to plan. It’s never too late to make one of these.

I literally just bought a binder (white with clear plastic slip cover) from the dollar store. Grabbed some gardening magazines and some paper and tabs. With the gardening magazines I found words that fit my goals and pictures I’m inspired by for my garden.

I now have a planning binder. For barely any money and simple.

I created a map of our backyard. I have to update this as we have planted more trees and such.

I also made tabs for Seed Inventory, Planting Log, Gardening Goals and Garden Maps. Make tabs for whatever you feel fits for what you want to keep organized.

Have fun with this. Each Garden is unique because we are all different people. I l hope this was helpful to you in your gardening journey.

Here’s a video with more of how our yard is currently with a sneak peak of our new fence. There’s much more to come. Subscribe to the Blog and My YouTube Channel for upcoming content.

Enjoy and have a great weekend.

Carrie Plantinga

Home and Garden Blogger