The Myth of Easy Gardening

Gardening isn't easy. It's a way of life and it consumes us and can easily become our primary focus. But I can think of no more powerful way for us to interact and connect with mother nature. When we immerse our hands in the dirt and we smell its unforgettable smell, we lose ourselves and time becomes irrelevant. We should enjoy working outside! It should inspire and heal us... a labor of love! Of course, we will be miserable, hot, pestered by insects, and sore the next day... but what better way to live than to be bone tired from a day of physical gardening!

Abandoned, or untended gardens have a certain charm, but to me, it is so pleasing to see a cared-for landscape. You can always tell when someone is an active gardener. It doesn't have to be a huge immaculate garden, it can be a shack, but a lived-in garden is unmistakable. A yard loved and taken care of always captures my focus. Even speeding down the highway, I notice the tended gardens!

My eyes often become overwhelmed by fancy botanical gardens, and it's easy to lose interest if color and flowers are overused. We tend to appreciate things more when they are lacking. Yet when color is used sparingly, it tends to make a larger impact. It's as if we can only "process" so much at one time.

It is also true that we who inhabit a garden day after day see things in a totally different way than that of a visitor. We see the weeds, we see the jobs that need doing, but they see something new and exciting!

It is always important to walk through your garden with fresh eyes, not looking for that next project or job, but to make an effort to enjoy the fruit of your labor! Additionally, I feel we should observe the little things, the insects, birds, and other things that inhabit our world.

Gardening is as much a worldview or philosophy as it is a hobby. A lifelong gardener is forced to confront the great existential questions of life, "are we really in control?" "what is beauty?", we engage directly with the mysteries of mother nature.

Don't think of working outside with your hands as a job, or as labor. Think of it as an intrinsic part of what it means to be a living breathing human. Our ancestors were always in direct connection with nature. They hoed the weeds, picked the fruit, and even long before our species became farmers, we knew which plants to eat and which to avoid. We are hard-wired to see and utilize plants. So I urge you to make an effort to go outside and look closely at plant life. Notice the variety, the fragrance, and the infinite colors! There is so much to discover and love in this world.