Great gardens take time. The learning curve never ends.
When people ask me how to get started with a garden, one of the first questions I ask them is how much time do you have to spend in your garden each day?
The reason I ask this question is people often have great gardens in their minds but in their daily lives, they simply do not have the time to care for those gardens. Sure, the first few days are full of energy as the garden bed or beds are prepared and the seeds and seedlings are planted and everything is watered.
But then life happens and the busy schedule that is many peoples’ reality starts to take over and tending the garden gets put aside or left to the weekend. Now, once a garden is established, you do not need to visit it every day, although I do recommend that if you really want a thriving organic garden then allow yourself at least five minutes each day.
During those five minutes, all you are doing is observing, looking for changes like any unwanted visitors or signs that something may be wrong, brown leaves, chew marks and so on.
This early warning will increase your odds of saving the plants before the problem zooms out of control.
Also, in unusual weather, heavy rains, excessive heat or not enough heat, you need to care for your plants, to help them endure the extremes, and still produce the flowers, and vegetables you want.
Great gardens take time. Do not start a garden you do not have to have the time to tend. Be sure to enjoy a quiet stroll around the garden. You are looking for anything unusual, so you can handle it, pests, diseases, before the situation gets out of control, then, back and watch nature do her thing.
When you calculate your time as part of the overall garden design process you will avoid building a garden that is too big for your lifestyle and also avoid the disappointment that can follow, especially if this is your fir
