Archive Tip of the Week
TIP OF THE MONTH
April 2010
“The most important time you can spend in the garden is the time you spend not gardening.” – Paul James, The Gardener Guy
It may strike you as more than a bit strange for those words to have come out of my mouth, as they did many years ago. But I truly believe it’s the most important piece of advice I can offer to gardeners. Here’s why.
Gardening isn’t just about digging and raking and hoeing and planting and pruning and watering and…well, you know what I mean. If that’s all there was to gardening, chances are there wouldn’t be near as many gardeners. Because however much we as gardeners enjoy certain gardening tasks, there are plenty of things we do that aren’t exactly enjoyable, as in (at least in my case) weeding the veggie garden when it’s 102 degrees outside. Let’s face it, certain chores that come under the heading of gardening are just plain work. In some cases hard, miserable, sweaty, back-breaking work.
But when the work – I mean, gardening -- is done (okay, so in truth it’s never done), it’s time to grab the beverage of your choice and do nothing more than stroll through the garden. Along the way, carefully observe both the flora and the fauna that surround you, from prized plants to worrisome weeds, and from beautiful beneficial bugs to pesky plant pests. Take in the sights, the smells, and the sounds. You might even pause for a moment to take pride in what you’ve created. But whatever you do, don’t do anything else. In other words, don’t garden!
Because when you do that, you can’t help but develop a true kinship with all those living things. And that, to me anyway, is the ultimate aim of gardening.
