Creating the Garden Of You

Every one of us is a unique individual with personality traits, desires, hopes, and dreams that are yours alone. We all wish to express our heart’s desires in our own unique way in everything we do – the clothes we wear, the way we style our hair, the car we drive, etc. And if you’re a gardener, you want to grow a garden that reflects your own personal style. You want to grow what you want the way you want it. So how do you make this happen?

Start by building your vision of your own unique garden. Ask yourself some questions to set the mood. What is your garden vision? Perhaps it’s to grow a food garden to provide vegetables and fruits for fresh eating. Or maybe it is to grow a garden of native plants to support native insects and animals. Or perchance you wish to plant an herb garden to provide plants for culinary or medicinal uses.

Next, determine how you are going to bring your garden vision to life. Do you have space in your own home territory (backyard, front yard, patio, or deck)? Perhaps a friend or relative would be willing to let you “sharecrop” a portion of their backyard and let you garden there. I like to call this OPS (Other People’s Space)

Will your vision fit your constraints (e.g. space, finances, time)? If not, can you move beyond these constraints? If you work a part time job that interferes with you taking care of a garden, then maybe you can adjust your working hours so you can devote more time to that garden? If there are trees, shrubs, or other plants in your yard that limit your space, can you remove them to make room for your garden?

Are you fully aware of the effort needed to bring this vision to life, and are you prepared to put in that effort? Remember, gardening will require some labor on your part. If the thought of getting sore, dirty, and sweaty makes you blanch, then gardening isn’t for you.

Now it’s time to firm up that vision. Write it down on a piece of paper or in a journal. Some examples:

• “I want to create a garden to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to the community.”
• “My vision is that of a garden that will provide a peaceful sanctuary where I can relax and unwind from everyday stress.”
• “I desire to plant a garden of poisonous plants that kill people when eaten or touched.” (Think I’m making this up? Check out The Poison Garden at The Alnwick Garden in Northumberland, UK) — https://www.alnwickgarden.com/the-garden/poison-garden/

After you’ve firmed up the vision, you will want to plan it out. You can either draw a rough sketch on paper or, if you’re the anal type like me, you can draw it to scale on graph paper.

Once you have it all planned out, you can then begin executing the plan. Measure and stake out the site, dig up any existing grass, prepare your soil, plant your seeds or transplants, and ta da! Your garden vision has come to life!

And that’s all there is to it. Build it, ink it, plan it, and execute it.

So what’s your garden vision?

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Where Do We Find The Motivation?

I forget all about the sweatin’ and the diggin’
Every time I go out and pick me a big one

• From the song “Home Grown Tomatoes” by Guy Clark

Gardening is hard work. Turning over the soil, planting, watering, weeding, harvesting, taking it all apart in the fall – all of this labor has the potential to make your body sweat and your muscles ache. So why do we do it? Where do we find the motivation? Well, I can’t speak for everybody, but here’s what motivates me.

I am motivated by being out in the fresh air and sunshine and getting some exercise that doesn’t require me to pay exorbitant health club fees. I am motivated by the awe and wonder of putting a tiny seed into the ground and watching it grow into a beautiful plant that delights the eye and provides foliage and fruit that nourishes the body. I am motivated by knowing that I’ll be eating produce that hasn’t been contaminated by harmful chemicals or fresh animal manure (e.g. poop on tap) from a nearby animal farm. I am motivated by seeing the delight in a fellow gardener’s eyes when I share some gardening wisdom that helps him or her to grow more and better vegetables.

But most of all, I’m motivated by knowing that all of that labor will soon result in fruits and vegetables that are sweet, crunchy, fresh, flavorful, and nutrient-rich in ways that store-purchased fruits and vegetables can only dream about.

How about you? What’s your motivation for gardening?