A friend of mine gave me a big bunch of flowers from her garden. I put them in vases and we enjoyed them for several days.
Eventually many of them welted so I cleaned them up. I salvaged the flowers still in a good shape, added some from the back yard and made 2 small arrangements.
Flowers are beautiful but can be messy with their pollen, petals and leaves falling as time goes. For example, I really like the look of Queen Anne’s Lace but they make quite a mess. After a few days the leaves and stems start getting rotten, slimy and stinky, if you don’t take care of them soon enough.
It took me for more than an hour to clean up the old flowers and the mess they created on and around the table, wash the dirty vases, get my pruners, finish the 2 small arrangements and clean up the work space. I am lucky to have a compost to throw all organic matters but if I didn’t, I would have to keep the pile of rotten plants somewhere around until the next garbage day. It’s a lot of trouble for the short-living additional colours on the table as a matter of fact. I don’t have time to do it regularly. It is not essential to our daily life. Nevertheless, occasionally I bring flowers in the house.
When I was working in the landscape industry, I saw many excited new home owners and to-be-retired couples with dream plans. All came to the landscape company to make their garden nice. We set up the start for them as they wished. In a few years after the installation, some gardens were thriving while others were pretty sad looking.
I also worked for wealthy people who could afford gardeners to look after their yard regularly. Many people enjoyed the nice garden but they were either not a gardener or lacking the physical ability to look after it. Some people wanted a small spot for their own play and the rest in care of professionals.
What I learned over time through my previous career was that you need to have the passion to grow and maintain your garden well. Many people dream about the postcard picture look of a garden without understanding the work to realize it. Commonly the garden doesn’t happen over night. Plants need time to establish. You need to nurse them until a certain point. Then they go overgrowing. They get disease. Your life changes and you need more or less area for different functionality. There is always something to do. The good looking garden is the result of consistent work.
I am now trying to grow own vegetables applying ‘Natural Farming’ and Permaculture methods. I still need to cultivate more area. I am monitoring and maintaining the developed beds at the same time. I carry on the regular care such as weed control and pruning as well as change things here and there with the hope for some improvement.
For this much of time and work, have I gotten a lot of vegetables? No! I have been facing many challenges and the crop is not always great in both amount and quality. Though it is encouraging to see some improvement from last year. If you talk about the efficiency and practicality, my vegetables are not economical at all. Well, at least at this point.
I am counting a few more years to reach the point the garden starts thriving. I am building it in the most eco-friendly way as known as the cheapest. I haven’t brought anything from outside the property except some seaweeds and a dozen of hay bales in the first year. I pile the yard waste, dig trenches for drainage and use the soil to cover the organic matter pile. I let the weeds grow to some degree, chop and drop to use as green manure/mulch.
Those who can’t wait for so long, there is a faster way to grow things organically. Buy fast decomposing material such as hay. Buy well rotten compost and spread over the hay. Buy organic fertilizer and apply it on the top if you like. Irrigate it. Then you will have a lovely crop from the first year. Simply speaking, if you can’t wait, you can buy it.
But, I prefer taking time. It is not only because I am cheap but also I enjoy taking time. I make time to do things.
Once my husband asked if I wanted a bread machine. He said then I didn’t have to spend so much time and effort to make a loaf of bread. I said to him, even though I appreciate his consideration, no. I enjoy the time to knead the dough. I enjoy the feeling of it. I enjoy watching it’s rising. It is worth it to spend so much time for me.
In our busy life, it is not realistic to do everything from scratch. I occasionally use frozen processed food for a quick meal and use drier instead of hanging clothes in the sun to make my life easy. But once in a while, I want to make time to enjoy the ‘work’. I choose a less efficient way intentionally not for the end result but the entire process.
I work in the garden more to play than to save money or secure quality foods for ourselves. The motivation of gardening is my enjoyment rather than obligation or fear. I call it a quality time, the time that enriches my life.