Gardening Made E.A.S.Y.

Have you heard the adage popular in some areas of the online gardening world “If gardening were easy, everyone would do it“? I’ve even seen it on t-shirts and mugs. Maybe the folks that say this are trying to inspire their community. To help others feel good about tackling a tough task that not everyone is up for. However, in general, I think this attitude is the wrong way to think about gardening for most beginners.

Now, I will admit, there is plenty of hard work you could do in a garden. Nobody would claim that setting up garden beds for the first time or weeding in the hot sun is always fun. But the basics of getting your garden up and running are easy. Plus, before about 100 years ago, almost everyone did it.

So, how do you make your gardening easy and successful? Well, I’ve got four basic steps for you. I’ve even given them names that make the acronym E.A.S.Y. just for good measure. Follow these steps and you will have the basics of your garden set up and ready for success.

E is for Education

Step One is to do some research on what you want to grow and how to grow it. This is mostly a decision step. It’s important to decide what you want to grow in your garden. The key is choosing things that YOU and your family want to grow. Don’t pick what you think you’re “supposed” to have in a garden. It’s easier to get excited about working in your garden if you will end up with food you love.

When I first started my garden I picked a bunch of random things out of the seed catalog that “might be fun to try”, and it was fun – for a little while. But once I grew them, it turned out I didn’t particularly like them. My family didn’t want to eat them, and taking care of them became a chore. I felt guilty about letting the weeds take over. But I didn’t really care if we harvested them or not, so it was just hard all around.

I’m not saying “don’t try new things”, but when you’re first starting out, do your research to choose plants to grow that will be fun all the way through to harvest.

If you’re looking research ideas, check out your favorite seed company. Or try a general gardening site like the National Gardening Association’s plant database.

Once you have done some research, and mapped out your garden plan, you’re ready for the next step.

A is for Acquisition

Step Two is to get the materials you need to grow your chosen plants. How you acquire your materials is up to you. You don’t have to buy everything! But, if you’re going for an easy way to get started, stick to your basic garden tools (trowel, shovel, hoe, rake, watering can, seed starting pots, etc).

You need to decide if you’re going to start your plants from seeds. You also need to get seed starting materials like seed starting mix, small seeding trays or pots and some medium sized (4 inch diameter or so) pots for transplanting certain plants (tomatoes and peppers for example) before they are ready to go outside or into their final container.

If you are going to start from seedlings, you need to get seedlings. Check your local farmers market, a local gardening store, or friends and family that have seedlings to share.

Now that you’ve acquired what you need to get started, you are ready to move to the next step.

S is for Systems

The key step for making gardening easy is setting up systems. Systems can help you consistently care for your garden. Doing a little gardening each day, or at least on a regular schedule will make sure you don’t burn out from trying to tackle too much. It also helps prevent big problems in your garden. If you catch issues like pests and disease when they are small, they are easier to deal with.

You can use a garden calendar or planner (either digital or paper) to lay out your plan for planting, watering, weeding and harvesting. If you did your research in step one, you should have some idea of when you need to do each step for a particular plant.

If you want some additional help, you can check out my blog post “How Do You Know When to Plant?“

Once you have your plan laid out, set alarms on your phone, or find a triggering habit (like every time I go out to check the mail or walk the dog I’ll stop in my garden for 10 minutes). Whatever you have to do to be consistent with checking on your garden. The key is doing the little tasks that add up to a successful garden over time.

If you’re having fun in the garden on a particular day, and you don’t have other tasks you need to complete during that time, feel free to spend more time if you want. However, consistency is generally better than being a “weekend warrior” that wears yourself out in a huge block on Saturday or Sunday, but doesn’t step foot in the garden during the week. This kind of schedule will burn you out, or make you dread all the tasks that have built up over time and knowing you have a two-hour block of work ahead of you is mentally harder than “oh, I’ll just check on my garden for a few minutes”.

OK, now that you have your easy systems set up, you’re ready to move to the final step.

Y is for YOLO

You may be asking, what does “You Only Live Once” or YOLO have to do with making gardening easy? Well, I will admit that I did need to find a “Y” to make my acronym work, but it does kind of fit as well. I’m using YOLO to emphasize that you can’t go back and start your garden last year, or even last week. If you haven’t started your garden yet, YOLO, start now. The only way to truly fail in your garden is never to start.

Don’t get stuck in “analysis paralysis”, or say to yourself “oh, I didn’t get started early enough in the spring this year.” That is the only way to be sure you won’t have any garden harvest in the future. As Nike says, “Just Do It”!

You will always wish you had done some things sooner, or things you would do differently if you had it to do over again. I make mistakes and run out of time on projects in my garden all the time. But, as long as you actually start, as long as you plant some seeds or get some seedlings and make sure they have light, water, and nutrients, you will get some results for your efforts.

So, those are the four steps for Gardening Made E.A.S.Y., Educate, Acquire, Systems, and YOLO. Now get out there and get started! Enjoy.

If you want more help to make your gardening easy, check out my Mission Healthy Plants mini-course in the shop.