I just wanted to let you all know I have decided to retire from Marty's Garden and the online world of gardening. I want to thank everyone for their support over the years. Everyone has been awesome and it's been an amazing journey of over 15 years I will close this account in a couple of days. I recommend that you reach out to any new friends and get their details so you can keep contact with them. Sending lots of love to you all. Marty & Sherly

I was vlogging the year in review today and was surprised how much had been achieved on my property this year. Ironically, I started the year backlogged with overrun areas, due to many months absence in the garden in 2024. I approached the year with the mindset, “Do a little - often” and “work one small area at a time” as I reclaimed and planted out each area. I used my Power Hour Gardening Challenges to motivate myself through the less appealing jobs. Mentally, challenges teach us to be less hesitant to do the things we perceive as difficult or less fun. Now I look around the whole property and marvel at what was done, with less stress, quicker than I thought possible, by attending to each growing space bit by bit. The Tomato and Chilly Challenge was right up my alley too being another challenge commitment. So far this has resulted in more attention to those specific plants. Yes, all my tomatoes are getting away on me now as they took off. There was a lot planted! They are growing well and so quickly I can’t keep up with the pruning! The result though, will be more food security and a wonderful sense of achievement. in addition, there’s the ever changing sanctuary spaces we can escape to, with every wave of worldly bad news - to just breath! ☺️ Abundant blessings to you all for 2026 all! May you have many more win than challenges in your gardens and may they bring much joy.

Wishing you all the very best into 2026 and beyond! Enjoy your evening, stay safe and God Bless. Marty and Sherly.

Merry Christmas to all the wonderful gardeners on the hub

Did a night hunt for pests tonight, catching about 60 slugs, some cockroaches, earwigs and a couple of snails. My motivation was to find what was chewing the top of a big cabbage. I expected an animal but it was a very veracious giant slug — now deceased! There was quite a few leopard slugs prowling the yard. I leave these slugs alone as they typically don’t eat fresh vegetation. They prefer decaying matter, rotting meat, and known to hunt down and consume the pesky slugs. Easy to spot as the marking as much like a leopard. Some of the bad slugs were almost as big as this fellow.