Focus on joy, rather than challenges, of gardening
The May 24 buying panic has passed, closely followed by worrying whether to plant or not to plant because of the risk of frost.
Now, with most things planted, the anxiety of tending the garden for the next few months begins. Will it rain enough, will there be plagues of insects, and will there be diseases in the garden? The answer is yes. It’s all part of the fine balance of nature.
Longtime gardeners have concerns about these things, but they long ago learned to adjust to the challenges of gardening and to focus on the joy. The wise ones accept that nothing is perfect and never will be.
Unlike plants fresh from the garden centre, plants in the wild are rarely perfect.
A garden is not a shopping mall world, all clean and shiny. One day a plant is thriving, the next it’s limp or bereft of leaves. There’ll be flea beetles on the beets and radishes, slugs on the lettuce and always aphids; there’ll be mildew on the zucchini and black spot on the roses, and so it goes.
If you’re new to gardening, starting a new flower bed or a vegetable garden, it can be daunting and disappointing, even to the point of despair. It can be enough to make anyone throw in the trowel and call it quits.
Don’t be discouraged. Let success with your first tomatoes or the sight of a new plant blooming for the first time restore your will to continue.
As you gain experience, you’ll learn when to spot the first sign of disease, or the arrival of a new pest.
Knowing when to water or fertilize isn’t obvious. Too much or too little of either can be disastrous. Garden long enough, and recognizing a plant’s needs becomes instinctive.
There must be a smartphone app on the way, but nothing beats experience, and apps won’t provide the joy that success provides.
There will always be successes, large and small. Embrace them and accept the failures because there will be a few.
I’ve had my share and I’m almost embarrassed to admit that the number of plants I’ve lost over the years is most likely equal to the number I currently have in the garden.
It’s partly my own fault for trying to grow plants I shouldn’t because they were never meant to be grown here. I should have stuck with dandelions.
I’ve had blight and blossom-end rot on my tomatoes. Blight is almost unavoidable some years, and blossom-end rot only occurred because I wasn’t paying attention to watering.
But I still got tomatoes. I have aphids on my lupines and on my roses, clematis wilt, and Japanese beetles that are doing their best to upset every gardener in the country.
And yet it all still brings me more joy than ever, and after a few successes, you’ll have yours.
Here’s where I give advice to the new gardener.
First, there will be work establishing a garden. Start small, slow down, and think of it as a free membership at the most convenient of gyms. Choose plants that are easy to grow.
Note the ones in your neighbourhood that grow well, and if they’re part of a commercial planting, they’re the easiest to grow. In the veggie garden, grow the easy ones there. Plant extras and there’ll always be a crop, even if the bad actors show up. And they will.
More than anything, pay close attention. You’ll spot things before they become a problem, and you’ll spot things that will give you a burst of delight, too.
It might be a first bird or butterfly or a strawberry that ripened overnight, hidden by the leaves. All these things will turn you into a lifelong gardener, and your life will be better for it.