When I walk our golden retriever Tuc around the farm each morning I use that time to make mental notes of places in my garden that need me later that day.
I’ve tried to not take my gardening lifestyle for granted, but I think it has happened. Reading and hearing the struggles of others trying to grow a flower garden, I’m realizing that I have just been assuming that everyone lives with a garden like I do. I was wrong.
I have been living this way for so long, it’s hard to even think back to a different kind of life. I’m inviting you to give the gardening lifestyle a try in 2021. It can be relaxing, deeply satisfying, and incredibly rewarding.
What exactly is a gardening lifestyle? Enjoying and tending your garden as a part of your everyday life. Not just one more thing on the dreaded and endless to-do list. It’s doing a little something in the garden most days with an occasional day of doing more. This tending the garden leads to living the gardening lifestyle.
What I’ve seen happen for many after planting a garden and the initial excitement has worn off is to just visit the garden as an afterthought in place of making it a part of your day. This usually leads to it turning into a weedy overgrown mess. This mess is a result of it being left on its own accord. Once this happens it tends to make us stay away even more. This needless cycle is what ends gardening and farming for many.
How can you get started and stay with gardening? The key to an easy start is to fit 10 minutes in with your patch several times a week. This might be when you walk the dog, getting the mail, or even coming from your car to the house at the end of your work day. I find attaching this time to something you already do really helps to get into a good habit of tending and checking in on your garden.
Those folks that I have seen slip into a comfortable and successful cycle of gardening have one very important thing in common: starting their gardens small. Doing this allows them the time to find their pace and learn to tend their gardens to prevent big problems.
Learning how-to garden and farm small first allowed me to move on to gardening and farming big successfully later.
Starting small may be the biggest challenge. Resisting the urge to overplant has to be a deliberate choice. It is so easy to fall headfirst into big dreams that lead to way more plantings than we can tend while we are still learning how to fit a garden into our life. This one simple choice often leads to whether or not some folks will ever garden again.
Overzealous planting has led many potential gardeners and flower farmers to throw in the towel before they ever experience the rewards. The satisfaction of starting small and reaping the rewards of a well-tended garden will lead to more gardening and farming in your future.
Need help learning more about growing and tending a small or large flower garden? In my book Vegetables Love Flowers I share how to get started and to live with a 3-season cutting garden. I have included diagrams, what to grow, doing it without pesticides, weed prevention, flower harvesting tips, and so much more. This book is how I live the gardening lifestyle.
Fondly,
Lisa Z
Founder of The Gardener’s Workshop and Flower Farming School Online and the publisher of Farmer-Florist School Online and Florist School Online. Award-winning Author of Vegetables Love Flowers and Cool Flowers. Watch Lisa’s Story and view her blog Field & Garden. Connect with Lisa on Facebook and Instagram!
