Gardening – Why I Do It
Gardening – why do I do it?
Gardening – why do I do it? It’s hard work, dirty, requires regular care throughout the growing season, and can still fail completely if something goes wrong.
So why do I enjoy gardening? Let me tell you.
Gardens will listen well and never talk back. Yes, you can talk to the dirt, the flowers, the plants, the shrubs, the trees. (Just don’t let your neighbors see you, unless you live in a rough neighborhood, and appearing to be crazy is an important part of your security measures!)
You can garden at your own pace, following either the sun or the shade as you like, and no one will bother you. It’s one of the best ways of multi-tasking anyone can do. While you garden, you can think about all manner of other things, work out problems without pressure, check on your emotions and let go stress.
Ah, yes. Stress. The red light on the dash of life… Gardening is one of the best ways to let go of stress. As you feel the dirt in your hands, or pull weeds, or sew seeds, or set bedding plants in, all the stress of life seems to just trickle out through your fingers into the earth.
Gardening is one of the few things almost anyone can do that rewards you over and over again.
As you break and prepare ground, you get great exercise, fresh air and sunlight, and the promise of things to come.
As you plant, each row, each new transplant, is an accomplishment, and when the planting is done, the expectancy of vibrant new green adds an air of mystique and excitement to your life!
Each new day brings a healthy excitement and interest, to see what has happened while you were away at other things. I enjoy nothing quite as much as taking a cup of coffee out to one of my gardens in the morning.
Out front is my main flower garden. It is a crazy layout, perhaps matching my mind. I love colour, and it is definitely colourful! From the first bulbs that send up grape hyacinth, many different colours of tulips, star flowers, crocuses, daffodils and others, to the towering, multicoloured hollyhocks that continue to bloom into the fall, it is crazy with colour, and life.
Fruit trees bloom around both yards in spring, and then there is the bridal veil and mock orange. In the evening, the fragrance will take your breath away!
Out back, of course, is the vegetable garden. I grow in every square inch of ground I can find, and then in the compost bins and in pots, as well. Kale, cucumber, broccoli, lettuce, beets, turnips, carrots, yellow, white and green onions, tomatoes (heirloom, of course), pole beans on the fence (why not?), zucchini, bell peppers, rhubarb, elderberries, thai berries, sunflowers and potatoes. I get enough potatoes out of our little plot to last my wife and I (along with giving some away) until the next ones are ready. All our potatoes are grown from our own waste potatoes and potato scraps. Black ones, white ones, Yukon gold, red russets… They’re all in there, and what a sea of green it makes when it’s all up!
I have a chair in my back garden, too, and like to sit there with a coffee in hand and just let everything fade out until all that’s left is me and the garden, the birds, including the little green hummingbird who like to drink from the hand held sprinkler, and a few bees and wasps (very helpful for the garden).
Some people wonder why I would even bother to grow potatoes, considering how inexpensive they are to buy. My answer is, the way they harvest potatoes commercially is… well… you really don’t want to know, if you actually eat them. Plus, just planting the garden and watching it grow is something you can’t put a price on.
I can’t speak for all the other gardeners, but I bet many would agree with me! And that, in the smallest nutshell I can use, is why I
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Sep 05, 2014 @ 00:55:39
[…] Gardening – why do I do it? It is the best way I know to relieve stress and really kick back, relax and enjoy life. […]
Sep 08, 2014 @ 05:22:21
When I was in school I used to work with my father in some types of gardening task. Though it was in very limited scale but every morning my father, after waking up, went for gardening. Sometimes we, brothers, accompanied him. But he was usually aware of our study. So in most of the cases, he didn’t let us to do those type of gardening task that much.

After completing my school (school system may varies from other countries), i left my village home in 2002. From then, till now living in a life, where only study and study. Far away from village, earth, gardening, nature…….. When in vacation, went home, that time was regarded as guest
So until now, never tasted gardening in your way. Never talked with vegetables, flowers, trees, herbs while gardening. But in my village, it was very green with lots of trees around us. If in stressed, then a long sleep or sitting by the side of polluted river (Burigonga, flowing through Dhaka city) was enough. Now can still on the bank of Indian Ocean
Very nice post as usual.
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