Garden Guy column: The magic of gardening
I frequently say that everyone enjoys a beautiful garden, but only some enjoy the activities necessary to have one. Since I believe that having a single plant in a pot in or outside the house makes one a gardener, it follows that the activities associated with gardening can be many or few depending on the garden’s scale.
Gardening can be a solitary or a communal activity and can encompass many different interests and activities. There are many ways to garden and learn about gardening through the AgriLIfe Extension Texas Master Gardener program, volunteering at the Amarillo Botanical Gardens, and volunteering at the High Plains Food Bank gardens among others. These offer a variety of activities sure to appeal to many differing interests.
Gardening can be done for 5 seconds (bending over to pull a weed), 5 minutes (pulling the other weeds that you see when you bent over for 5 seconds) or 5 hours at a time (when you realize you need more mulch to prevent weeds.) It can be done indoors or out, in all weather, and in all seasons.
For new and experienced gardeners there are ways to make gardening enjoyable depending on what you want to do and at what scale you want to do it. You set the terms and choose to follow all, some, or none of the “rules of gardening” to make it fun and interesting for you.
My one rule of gardening is “Do what you want to do when you want to do it.” Too many people think that you must follow the rules - for example, feed roses monthly and prune trees in winter. Rules are good for guidelines and best gardening practices, but they guarantee neither success if followed nor failure if ignored.
Rules often take the fun out of gardening which otherwise is experiential, experimental, serendipitous, creative, spontaneous, fun, and rewarding. While there are good reasons to prune trees in winter, don’t you see trees being pruned all year ‘round? My roses are lucky if they get fertilized once a year let alone monthly during the growing season. They thrive anyway.
Gardening should not simply be task oriented. Gardens should be a place of tranquility and distraction, of fascination and fantasy. Gardening should be mostly fun mixed with occasional work. Do what you want to do, when you want to do it. There are no Garden Police that will throw you into garden jail if you don’t follow the rules.
For me gardening helps provide good health – physical and mental. It gives me a creative outlet in a beautiful, peaceful, and contemplative environment. It gives me something to share with others with satisfaction and pride. It allows me to recapture memories, provides my “secret place”, and teaches patience. Gardening builds community.
“…he who cultivates a garden and brings to perfection flowers and fruits, cultivates and advances at the same time his own nature.” Ezra Weston, 1845.
“He who plants a garden plants happiness. If you want to be happy for a lifetime, plant a garden.” - Chinese Proverb.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Garden Guy column: The magic of gardening
