2026-08-18
As I reach the one-month mark on my Digital Garden, I'm reflecting on what I've built and where I want the garden to go.
I've gotten very comfortable with my day-to-day updates - I've written a blog every day so far! I've figured out most of my page styling (except a pesky container issue on my art page) and can implement most static content that I dream up.
There are a few things I'd like to implement as net-new functionality. I want to set up an RSS feed myself (looked into it, coding it myself seems like it's going to be harder than it sounds and might require a non-static hosting option). I want to set up proper hosting on a non-static server to open my options for developing more interactive content, running a small database backend, and who knows what else.
There are also a few improvements to be made. My blog in particular has gotten unruly with the number of sub-pages I'm creating - one per day. I'm sure there must be a better way to reduce repetition, and build some scripts to do things like updating the blog index automatically based on detected pages. There's also opportunity to reduce repeated HTML, probably by embedding content into a template rather than copy-pasting for each new page. The header and footer bars were a good start to this, but we can dream bigger.
I want to add more images - pictures, art, icons, maybe something more for a background, trinkets or banners - to make things more fun to look at. There's a whole lot of plan text on these pages. Speaking of art, I'd like to get into writing more, both for fun (poetry, fiction, stories) and maybe guides or learning topics.
I'd also like to create more diverse pages. I've fallen into a routine of adding a blog and updating my learning progress every day, but I want to add more trinkets, create coding projects that I can imbed visually into new pages, and create games or tools for fun and to practice things I'm learning.
And last thought for now, I want to find and share more sources of inspiration. Years ago I came up with the idea that creating is greater than consuming, but also, one cannot exist without the other.
Cheers to the garden's first month!