By the sweat of your brow and the pain in your back, you toil relentlessly in the summer heat, desperately pushing forward in a never-ending battle against weeds and pests.

Is this what you want?

When you sign up to be a gardener, you are designating a plot of land in your yard to be sacred ground and every effort you put into lay claim to this sacred piece of your perceived paradise is a declaration that you are a gardener.

Here are 3 reasons why you shouldn’t be a gardener, and 3 reasons why I don’t give a rip and garden anyway.

1. It’s time consuming.

There are 24 hours in a day, but I didn’t need to remind you of that. One thing that most people have in common is that we’re all pretty much constantly “chasing” time – there doesn’t seem to be enough of it! Honestly, I’ve had more conversations with others where the lament hasn’t been, “I wish I had more money.” It’s more often been, “I wish I had more time!!”

Gardening absolutely will take time, just like any additional activity. What it all comes down to is what value you are placing on things that take your time.

Here’s a quick breakdown of things we typically value with our time:

→ Takes time and is important
→ Takes time and is important
→ Takes time and is important
→ Takes time and is important

And then there are things that we might value a little more highly than necessary that take our time:

→ Takes time, but not high priority
→ Takes time, but not high priority
→ Takes time, but not high priority
→ Takes time, but not high priority

We know the second list isn’t high priority, but it somehow manages to take a lot of time, sometimes to the detriment of the first list.

Consider how gardening could actually help supplement that first list. Need more quality time with family? Get out into the garden and work together! You’ll treasure the time together, learn to communicate more clearly, and work together to accomplish tasks as a team.

Having difficulty with food prep? Grow a garden to save on groceries, provide you with healthy alternatives, and allow you to learn how to prepare new recipes that are super simple!

Your time is your time and how you use it is up to you. Time spent in the garden is seldom a waste!

2. It’s hard work.

Everything is work if you think about it. Just like your activities require your time, they also require your effort. Gardening is no different.

But let’s be clear: not all hard work is bad work. Hard work is the work you devote for the work that is worth it. And to be sufficiently clear: gardening is worth it.

I could list out the mental benefits of gardening, or the benefit to your cardiovascular health due to the activity, but I’ll let you discover that on your own and assure you that it is always worth it.

Hard work is something you value, much like your time; so if you’re now on board after my pontification on how gardening is worth your time, agreeing that the work is worth it should be a breeze!

If you’re still on the fence, let me break down some of this hard work for you:

→ Takes a weekend of your time, takes effort
→ Work that can take anywhere from less than an hour to a day
→ 10-20 minutes of “work” a day
→ Takes minimal effort and minimal time

How “hard” this work is will be determined by you. To say a garden is hard work is like saying binging a series is hard work. If you enjoy it, it’s work, but not a waste.

3. It’s expensive.

This one almost kept me from getting back into gardening. After watching hours of YouTube gardening content and seeing how so many gardeners had the best materials, I thought there was no way I could be as successful as them on my limited budget (psyche - I didn’t plan a budget lol).

But I was able to improvise and allow my creativity to work around my financial limitations.

→ Red party cups
→ BBQ cooking sheets
→ Empty water bottles
→ A stick, literally
→ More sticks and tree branches
→ Wood pallets I found for free
→ Asking other gardeners to share (and they gladly did!)
→ Dead cedar trees sourced from a local farmer

By using my imagination, I was able to use what money I was able to make available to purchase things like higher quality potting soil and professional grade compost to enhance the soil in my garden space.

Gardening is expensive if you don’t take the time to think through your strategy. That’s why it’s so important to have some sort of plan. And if you’re feeling strapped on creativity, speak with others in your gardening community; you’ll quickly find that most, if not all, gardeners love to help other gardeners!

There you have it: three reasons why you shouldn't be a gardener, along with reasons why I don’t give a rip.

And since we’re ending on the note of gardeners helping other gardeners, if you have any ideas or suggestions that you have found have been helpful in getting you started in your own garden, share away in the comments! Your ideas could be the ones that help nudge someone into finally getting their hands in the dirt! 🙂

Don’t Be A Gardener

Five Veggies to Grow this Upcoming Year