Garden Motivation

Comedian Demetri Martin says that swimming is a confusing sport, because sometimes we do it for fun, and sometimes we do it not to die. In a way, gardening is the same. All over the world people grow food in order to survive, while most gardeners I know do it as a hobby, albeit one with health advantages that come from the work involved and the food harvested.

With food prices at historically high levels and with more concerns about food safety, the hobby part of gardening is taking a back seat to the pragmatic part. More gardens are popping up, and even people without yards are finding ways to plant some food in pots or with hydroponic set-ups in spare rooms.

It is interesting to see, especially in community gardens where many people have plots, that some people start with enthusiasm but succumb to the reality of heat, bugs, and weeds, while others endure to harvest time. I think we fall half-way between those two extremes. We keep at it all summer and generally have a good harvest, but the weeds have great success in procreating for the future.

The whole idea about gardening to improve our lives as opposed to gardening in order to stay alive puts a lot of things in perspective. The hours spent capturing Japanese beetles annoy me. Deer eating or trampling plants is a pain. Watering, and of course, weeding are time consuming. If, however, assuring a good harvest meant not being hungry all winter, our attitude about it would be very different.

My favorite part of gardening is preparing the soil for planting, followed by planting, and then weeding and harvesting. By mid-summer my favorite parts of gardening are about done. It takes some discipline to follow through with the rest of the season. If we needed the food to live, I’m sure I would see it differently.

My father-in-law gardened for a family of 11. Their garden probably wasn’t a matter of survival, but it was certainly very important to them. All of the nine kids in that family have done some gardening because, maybe surprisingly, they realized that the work involved was enjoyable when Mom or Dad wasn’t forcing you to do it.

A person could spend more on a garden than they would save on the food grown, but the idea that we have the skills and knowledge to be somewhat self-sufficient is worth the cost in time and money. And, pulling weeds in July is a good time to feel real gratitude that we have the good fortune to be doing the work because we want to, and not, as Demetri might say, not to die. 

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