SPECIAL OFFER

Everything you need to know about starting your own ideal garden space right now.

Get the toolbox you need to make your dream a reality.

• Visualize and plan what your personalized garden space will look and feel like, and how you can put it into action immediately.
• Discover why you don't need to wait any longer to get started.
• Explore different soil ideas, and choose the one that's right for you.
• Learn proven ways to water effectively to increase the health of your garden.
• Do you ever feel overwhelmed by bugs? This toolbox shares which insects are friends and foes, so you know how to protect your garden.
• Also included is a list of my favorite tools and where to find them.
• Having fun in the garden is the most important thing, which is why I am also including a Bonus! My free Spotify playlist will have you singing and dancing your way through creating your perfect garden space.
• Believe in yourself--you have everything you need to make your dream a reality right now!

Hi, I'm Carly.

And I'd really love to help you grow.

I have been obsessed with plants as far back as I can remember. Starting with grinding up Snow Berries & Rhododendron blossoms to make “perfume” for my mom and aunt when I was little, to working in greenhouses and nurseries as a teenager. I’ve just always loved to watch things grow. 

However, wherever I lived never supported a garden: duplexes, fourplexes, houses so deep in the woods that no sun beam could ever sneak through. A house with sand for a backyard. A tiny lot in the city that hardly had space for our house and 3 huge walnut trees. 

In 2012, I finally moved to a house in the city with a real yard! With sunshine, and a tiny garden patch next to the driveway. I fought the soil and weeds for five years. Then I finally switched to raised beds, and at age 38, my first real garden was born. 

Unfortunately, my health still kept me from my garden. A lifetime of chronic illness made it hard for me to do lots of things that most people can do easily. Like watering, weeding, and general tending. Over the years, I was able to learn how to set my garden up to thrive even when I couldn’t. I also read everything I could about my illness and tried to cure myself. I learned how to use herbs, fruits, and vegetables to help cure my chronic conditions, which made my own garden even more valuable.

The next problem I ran into was being overwhelmed by my harvests. I couldn’t use everything up before it went bad, and I felt terrible when things I grew went to waste. I started trying to learn and research how to garden more effectively and preserve my harvests, but it was so hard to find any good information! When I did finally find any, I gobbled it up with gusto, and found ways to make it work for me, a recovering lazy person, battling chronic illness. 

I started The Little Green Shoot first and foremost, to share my love of plants with the world. And secondly, to try to be the resource I wish I’d had for others. I want to show you how to make gardening easy and work for your lifestyle. I also want to teach you quick and easy ways to preserve your harvests and create your own mini homestead, even in the city. I am passionate about cooking and eating nourishing foods, and love to find new ways to use what I grow or purchase in healthy, and sustainable ways.

Gardening is both an art and a science, and your skills and knowledge grow and evolve with you throughout your entire life. Your garden can be as big or small as you like. There will be good years and bad years, failures and successes, and that’s where both the growing and the fun happens. If you’ve ever thought of yourself as a failure in the garden, you’re not. If you’ve ever thought you would kill every plant, you won’t. If you’ve ever thought you can’t learn, you can. I’m here to teach you.

Wishing you all that is in your best good,

Carly MacQuarrie