Bringing Joy Back to Gardening

I was cleaning up my desk yesterday—a great way to turn procrastination into a productive activity—and came across a list of potential topics for future blog posts.

There at the top was “How to Bring Joy Back to Your Garden” followed by JOY written out with little dashes next to each letter. I assumed that meant I was going to use JOY as an acronym.

But wait, had I already written such a post? I did a quick search of my blog archives and came up empty handed. I did, however, find a post I wrote in 2010 about five types of garden therapy. I’m going to pause right here so you have time to click on that link and go read that post. I enjoyed it and I think you will too.

Pausing. Looking out the window. Refreshing my tea.

Oh, you’re back. Well, thank you for reading that old post!

Now, would you like to know how to bring JOY back to your garden? It is an acronym to help you remember…

J

Gardening is all about the Journey. Yes, I’m re-using, recycling, repurpusing an old cliche about life is about the journey not the destination. In the gardening, the journey is the doing. For you to have joy in your garden you’ve got to be a part of it. If you are able, you need to feel the dirt of it, experience the sweat of it. Or at least to pick out most of the plants in it.

O

Use Organic methods as much as possible. You’ll get no long-winded lecture from me, but my observation is that there isn’t much joy in spraying pesticides around a garden. And there are far fewer happy bees, butterflies, and fireflies around a garden after spraying. No joy for them, no joy for you. You can do better in your garden by finding alternatives to pesticides. And you’ll enjoy it more too.

Y

Grow the plants You love. Put Yourself in the garden. Yes, that’s two Y’s, but I’m not changing the acronym to JOYY. To bring Joy to your garden and gardening, grow the plants you love, and be the one growing them and tending them and fussing over them. (Wait, no fussing in gardening… but that’s a post for another day!)

Now to recap and simplify… JOY in the garden is all about Journey, Organic, and You.

Joy could also be about violas and pansies, but that’s also a post for another day.