Gardening is a Process

There are a number of simple and relatively easy ways to begin a garden. No matter what you want to grow, vegetables, herbs, flowers, your garden can be ready to go in under two hours and sometimes even less.

The garden I am referring to here would be a relatively small one, for example, you would not be able to grow enough food to feed a family but you could produce more than enough herbs for year round use, as long as you dried some and you could grow tomatoes and salad greens for the season. There are other possibilities and your interest, knowledge and skills will determine what you sow and how much you reap.

No matter what you decide to produce in your garden, your yield, how successful you are will depend not upon a focus on the results of your work but on the process. In the garden it is not what you grow (a personal choice) but how you grow what you grow (a process).

If your attention is on the end result and not what you are doing, you can find yourself, failing to for example nurture the soil which is the activity that rests at the heart of organic gardening.

You want the garden to succeed, however, part of the fun of growing things is experimentation, taking a chance and trying something new or doing something differently.

Gardening is more than growing food or flowers; it is an interaction, a cooperative adventure and an exchange. The end result the tomatoes, roses or basil are much appreciated and enjoyed, but, the gardening activity itself is the primary reason for being out in the garden in the first place.

A focus on results can lead you to miss the sheer joy of being outside under the sun, in the rain, feeling the wind blowing across your skin. All of these and more are an integral part of spending time in your garden.

The time spent deadheading, weeding, or simply checking the plants for problems brings the gardener into close proximity, with other beings who help the garden grow, butterflies, bees and spiders are the gardener’s helpers and watching them be what they are is nearly magical.

When all your attention is concentrated on the end result, that juicy beefsteak tomato, the summer may either drag or fly by, and you miss the individual moments that make up each day, hour and minute. The garden is where we step out of the normal, hectic pace of our lives and slow down and be.