Friday, April 2, 2010

Gardening: Peaceful or stressful?

Most of my gardening friends and family will tell you that gardening is like therapy. They find comfort,peace of mind and sanity when working in the garden. 
I have to admit though, the joy I find in gardening is not in the work that goes into it. It's hard work sometimes, especially when I am daily fighting cucumber beetles, squash bugs, SVB's, Powdery mildew, and on and on. To me, those things spell stress! What I do find great pleasure in is the accomplishment I feel when I get to pick the first harvest! When the first flowers begin to bud out! I love to see new life sprouting up out of the dirt.
 I am a perfectionist and a control freak and that probably doesn't go very well with gardening since nature is so unpredictable to say the least! I can't always control how many plants germinate, I can't always keep all those stinkin bugs away or the powdery mildew from taking over my yard! I can say though, besides wanting to control and perfect everything, I am a problem solver! I will try and try again until I can find a solution that works for me.
So, that is why I LOVE spring! It is a time to start all over again! A chance to prevent the problems of the previous year. A chance to try something new.  It's kind of like forgiveness...you have a clean new slate to start again and hopefully do it better!
Happy Spring! And Happy Easter!

2 comments:

  1. I've learned to love the bugs. I visualize problems and flick those ($&^ things into a cup of soapy water and say "so long, sucka!"

    Ok, it doesn't always help with the problem, but it's still fun to do it.

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  2. It's my personal serenity device, and I love it.

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