Garden Glow Up in Progress: Veggie Garden

When the garden flooded…

Earlier this year, I overhauled the veggie garden…

✅ new premium garden soil

✅ pine bark fines to improve drainage

✅ pathways, weed barrier, pine bark mulch — the works

Not because I wanted to,
— but because I had to. ☝🏼☝🏼

Heavy rains turned our veggie garden into a swamp a year ago. ⛈️😩 And I watched too many plants drown.

Pictures and notes from our garden reset here 🌱✨

Making do with what I had

But I never finished the main garden path after our garden reset.

And I needed one.

Didn’t exactly know what I wanted it to look like…

So, I just started with what I had:

Very basic pavers and pine bark mulch (pic below + video here).

---

A $20 path to progress

Then a few weeks ago…

I spotted some hexagon pavers at the store. 😝🤏🏼

They caught my eye—
But my budget was only $20…
So, I bought just a few.

---

---

Little by little, the path started to take shape.

Looking at it makes me think I’m loving how far it’s come.

How far our garden has come.

How far my life has come!! 🥹🙌🏻 

---

---

This week, I had another $20 in my budget.

So, I grabbed more pavers.

---

---

Now the path is starting to look like it’s one of one—something only I could have made.

---

Little by little 🌱✨

Putting this path together (little by little) gave me a reminder I didn’t even realize I needed:

⚫ The best glow ups don’t happen overnight.
⚫ They happen little by little.
⚫ And I’ve got time to make something beautiful.

The same is true outside the garden too! ✨

Funny moment — while I was writing this blog, my youngest read it.

They did a double take at my $20 budget and said:

You only got $20? Papa couldn’t give you $150?

FYI: They gave me such a precise number because that’s how much money they want for something. Ahahahaahaha.

I laughed and told them something like this:

➡️ It’s not about what Papa can or can’t give me.

➡️ It’s about me choosing to save for what I want.

➡️ My little budget helps me build steady habits, find peace in the process, and make choices I’ll thank myself for later.

@lolacabaya Our veggie garden flooded last year 😩—so we built raised beds to fix it. Our shopping list? Bricks, pine bark fines, premium garden soil. Now it drains like a dream. Look at the baby watermelons + cucumbers climbing our trellis! 🍉🥒 Curious about how we did it? 😆 I got you 👉🏽 bit.ly/instant-garden 👈🏽 📍 North Carolina #thesmokingprophet #gardentok #zone8garden #northcarolinagarden #couplecore #gardeningtok #ncgardens ♬ Love Me – JMSN

Final thoughts

So, if you’re at the start, in the middle, or ending of your own project—maybe don’t rush it.

Whether it’s:

⚫ your space
⚫ your career
⚫ money goals
⚫ investing in stock
⚫ saving for retirement
⚫ or some other means of personal growth

Progress stacks up.

Even $20 at a time.
🤭🤭 *giggles* 🌱

What’s one ‘little by little’ glow up you’re working on right now?

Leave a comment or show me on social (just tag @LolaCabaya)

You may like this too:

How to Build a Garden Path on a Budget