We’ve reached the end of another gardening year. Maybe your garden was spectacular. Maybe it was just so-so. Maybe it was an absolute disaster in certain beds and you’re still a little salty about the squash vine borers.

However it went, this is a powerful moment in the gardening calendar.

Today we’re going to slow down and talk about taking time to reflect on the past season, reset your expectations, and reimagine what you want from your garden next year.

Extension programs and planning guides consistently recommend end-of-season evaluation, note-taking, and mapping as key pieces of long-term garden success. Research on goal-setting shows that specific, challenging, and meaningful goals help people follow through and actually change their behavior.

So, in this final episode of the year, we’re going to weave those two ideas together:

1. Why the end of the year is the best time to reflect on your garden

2. What goal-setting research can teach us about making better garden goals

3. Turning reflection into 3–5 clear, realistic goals for next year

4. A healthier mindset for handling “failures” and unexpected seasons

By the end, you’ll have a framework to close the book on this year’s garden and open a new one with intention.

Let’s dig in.

References and Resources:

Iowa State University Extension – Yard and Garden. “Garden Journaling.”: https://yardandgarden.extension.iastate.edu/how-to/garden-journaling

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. “Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation.” American Psychologist, 2002: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12237980/

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