Backyard Living Magazine recently asked 100 Master Gardeners to give their best gardening tip. I’ve already posted about a few of them, and there is one last one I wanted to share. It’s the very last tip listed, #100.
If things don’t turn out as you planned, savor the lessons learned and try something new next time.
I hope Katie Marlow — the author of that tip — doesn’t mind me making a slight alteration. It shouldn’t be “if things don’t turn out…” it should be “When things don’t turn out…” Gardening — like most things in nature — is a very humbling hobby. I’m not a master gardener, but I would venture to guess that even quite seasoned gardeners learn new things each year. Everyone makes mistakes. Instead of trying to be perfect, it’s better for your sanity to embrace mistakes as opportunities to learn.
When you kill a plant, you’ve only failed if you didn’t learn anything about how to care for that plant in future (even if what you learned is that you aren’t willing to spend hours upon hours babying that particular plant and don’t want to grow it anymore). I know that sounds like a variation of a cheesy quote one of your middle school teachers had on the bulletin board, but as the daughter of a teacher who loves inspirational quotes, I can attest that sometimes those sayings are true!
Beyond just gardening skills, I can’t tell you how much I have learned about myself through gardening, and how many opportunities gardening has provided me to be a better person. I’ve made plenty of mistakes that allowed me to work on being more patient, less impulsive and more steadfast (just to name a few personality traits!). I didn’t set out to learn patience through gardening, but the reflection made after planting some bulbs too early (and the problems that resulted there from) certainly had that net effect.
If you embrace the idea that being a perfect gardener is not possible, you’ll be happier and learn a lot about gardening and yourself in the process.
Other Master Gardener Tips:
- Using a Color Wheel to Choose Flowers for Your Garden
- Lighter Pots, Less Soil Wasted and a Way to Recycle Plastic Bottles
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Well said Fern! Gardening has to be viewed as a rather fluid journey, with high and low spots in planting…it’s probably the lack of rules and structure that attracted me to it! Mathmatical formulas never made any sense to me, so I for one would much rather have my gardening time be experimental and enjoyable, with lots of do-overs and re-arranging.
Thanks for this last tip…I have had to come to realize that if something doesn’t make it around here, it was just not meant to be mine! LOL! Glad to know I am not alone!
You are so right, Fern! I have mentored a lot of people who want to be garden designers over the years and it seems like they immediately want to go from liking gardening to making a good living designing.
But you can’t rush the learning process, and so much of what makes an awesome gardener able to advise others is by firsthand experience of what doesn’t work. Good post!
Whew, I’m glad you guys agree. I felt a little nutty writing this post. It’s a little more touchy-feely than I usually allow myself to get.
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