Great Gardens Take Time

Great gardens take time; time to grow and time to learn. To begin gardening, you do not need a lot of knowledge but you do need the time to allow what knowledge you have to expand as you get out in the dirt and discover what you need to know.

When people ask me how to get started with a garden, one of the first questions I ask them is how much time do you have to spend in your garden each day?

The reason I ask this question is people often have great gardens in their minds but in their daily lives they simply do not have the time to care for those gardens. Sure, the first few days are full of energy as the garden bed or beds are prepared and the seeds and seedlings are planted and everything is watered.

But then life happens and the busy schedule that is many peoples’ reality starts to take over and tending the garden gets put aside or left to the weekend. Now, once a garden is established, you do not need to visit it every day, although I do recommend that if you really want a thriving organic garden then allow yourself at least five minutes each day.

During those five minutes all you are doing is observing, looking for changes like any unwanted visitors or signs that something may be wrong, brown leaves, chew marks and so on.

This early warning will increase your odds of saving the plants before the problem zooms out of control.

Also, in unusual weather, heavy rains, excessive heat or not enough heat, you need to care for your plants, to help them endure the extremes, and still produce the flowers, and vegetables you want.

Great gardens take time and before you discover that you put in a garden that you do not have time for, determine just how much time each day you have to spend in the garden. Once your garden is established you may just need to take a quiet stroll and check for anything unusual, after which you can sit back and watch nature do her thing.

When you calculate your time as part of the overall garden design process you will avoid building a garden that is too big for your lifestyle and also avoid the disappointment that can follow, especially if this is your first garden. Great gardens take time.