Top 10 Life Lessons From Your Garden

Everybody seems to have a Top 10 list these days. So, without trying too hard to be trendy, I started thinking about the top 10 life lessons I’ve learned from working in my garden.

There are so many awesome conversations I’ve had with my kids when things didn’t go right in the garden, and it just got me thinking about how much we’ve all learned and how we can apply it to “real life”.

I don’t know that these are necessarily ranked from most to least important or vice versa, because they’ve all been important at different points in my life. But here’s my list of life lessons from the garden:

Lesson 1 – Food doesn’t come from the grocery store

This was a conversation I’ve had multiple times with all of my kids. Usually starting when they were three or four and just starting to try to figure out how the world works. They see that Mommy goes to the store to get food, but never really think about where the store gets the food. There’s also usually confusion when the store doesn’t have something they really wanted. How could the store be out of it, if that’s where it comes from?

We talk about how the store buys the food from farmers or factories that make the food, and people work at those places to grow or process it. Now that we grow some of our own food, they see that food comes from plants or animals. They know people have to harvest it and process it and sell it to the people who eat it.

Honestly, there are some adults I’ve met who haven’t really ever gone through this thought process. The recent supply chain shortages seem to leave people confused – how could the grocery store be out of meat? Or eggs? Or whatever thing is currently running out.

Learning how to grow food yourself can provide clarity, and experience in how the world works. It can provide a useful skill when the global supply chain doesn’t provide what you need. It can even save you some money on your grocery bill!

Lesson 2 – There is no candy tree

This is one of the key life lessons that has made the biggest difference in my family’s food choices. When you understand that whole foods, found in nature, never take the form of pure sugar.

Don’t get me wrong, there are tons of fruits and even vegetables that my kids will eat “like candy”. Some of them wouldn’t be “healthy” if that was all you ate. But refined sugar is not something you can grow in your garden. Getting to that level of sweetness usually takes quite a bit of processing.

I consider it a huge win when my kids go outside to get their snacks at least some of the time. We are not a “zero sugar” household by any stretch of the imagination, but I try to get my kids to understand that candy and sweets are not really “food”. You can’t make a meal out of just dessert.

I love that they can now make better food choices. Like replacing that candy bar with a piece of fruit and still satisfy their sweet tooth.

Lesson 3 – Growing food takes time

This one was a hard one to learn, for me and my kids. When you get excited about starting a garden and growing food it’s exciting at first. You make plans and decide what to grow. Then you look at all the amazing seed catalogs or Pinterest pictures of how it might look. You even get to spend time getting your materials and setting up everything.

You plant your seeds – and you wait. And you wait. Then maybe you see some sprouts, which is super exciting! But it’s not like they turn into ripe vegetables overnight. There’s lots of patience, and maintenance and just plain waiting around. No amount of excitement, wishing or hoping will make them grow any faster.

Sometimes if you get busy, a productive garden can seem like it grew overnight. But in general, patience is a virtue you have to cultivate in gardening.

The reality is, though, that lots of things in life take time. Learning new skills, building a relationship, raising kids, it all takes patience and time. Plus a lot of those things take much more time than growing plants. Seeing your patience rewarded with tasty vegetables can be a great way to develop patience in other areas of life.

Lesson 4 – Planning is essential

You can garden without a plan if you want to, just like a lot of other things in life. But things go a lot more smoothly if you take a little time to plan ahead before you start.

I am a person who loves to plan (engineering nerd by training). My garden plan is on a sheet of grid paper with all the beds drawn out. It shows exactly what goes in each space and when they should be planted. My plant list is in a spreadsheet with how many seeds to start, when each variety is ready to harvest, and how they did last year. I even put little sticks with names in all my seed trays and labels on all my transplant pots.

You DO NOT need to go to this level of planning to have a successful garden. However, just throwing a bunch of seeds in some soil is not necessarily the way to go either. Some of those seeds will probably sprout. But if you’re going to spend the time and effort to raise the plants from seedlings to harvest, investing a little time up front to increase your chances of success makes a lot of sense.

Learning the value of planning ahead in your garden, applies to so many other areas of life. In the garden you just lose some time, or maybe some plants, and the opportunity to harvest. But learning this lesson early can help prevent losing more important things in your life.

Lesson 5 – Sometimes things die

This is another hard lesson to learn, and to watch your kids learn. Especially if I suspect that something in my garden died because of my choices.

Even when it’s not “your fault”, it’s still hard to watch your garden plants die. I especially try to save my kids from the pain of losing something they’ve eagerly looked forward to. But the reality is, sometimes things die. Sometimes you don’t know why, and it’s really frustrating.

I think it’s important to recognize that things don’t always go as we planned and sometimes we have invested our time and energy into something that didn’t work out the way we planned. It may even seem like a complete waste. Especially if mother nature, or an especially hungry garden pest takes out most of your garden overnight.

But, building resilience and learning to deal with loss in one area encourages building those skills in all areas of your life. Just like having a pet at a young age can teach responsibility and eventually how to deal with death, gardening can teach those skills in a matter of a few weeks sometimes.

Our own mortality is a tough concept to discuss with kids. But gardening brings with it the inherent understanding that some of their plants have to die so we can eat them, some of their plants die if we don’t take care of them properly, some of their plants die when their season of life is over, and some of their plants will just die with no explanation. It’s not the same as losing a pet or a family member, but it can spark some interesting conversations and life lessons that begin the process of learning to deal with loss in your garden.

Lesson 6 – You can always try again

One of the things I love about gardening is there’s always next year. No matter what mistake or planning error, or natural disaster happens, I can always try again. The learning process might be painful at times, but as long as we’re learning, it’s never really a failure.

I think this is a concept that gets lost for people sometimes in other areas of life (or sometimes in gardening too). The fact that something doesn’t work out one time is not a reason to expect it to never work out. I think gardening can teach you that even the perfect plan doesn’t always work, and the only way to truly fail is to stop trying.

In a garden there are a lot of obvious variables that you can play with to try to make your next try more successful. What kind of plant, when you plant it, where you plant it, how you take care of it, there are so many options and ways to improve. Looking for ways to improve your performance in other parts of life is a key garden life lesson that will take you far, if you develop it. Trying again, even if you failed the first time is an important lesson in resilience.

Lesson 7 – It’s a journey, not a destination

Here’s an unfortunate truth about gardening – your garden will never be “done”. No matter how many weeds you pull, or times you water or harvest, there will always be more to do. You can complete a specific task, but very little in gardening is permanent or finite.

You need to decide how much of each task you are going to do each time you do it. Then you need to decide how often you are going to repeat the task to have success. Watering your garden once a month probably isn’t going to cut it, unless your garden is outside in an area with frequent rains. Harvesting your vegetables once and then walking away will probably leave a lot of your harvest to rot. Everything you do has to be repeated over and over for success, and sometimes you don’t even see the progress at the time.

This is such an important life lesson from the garden. So many things in my life seem kind of pointless because as soon as I do them they are immediately undone. Who hasn’t loaded the dishwasher, started it up and then turned around to see one more dish on the counter or in the sink? Some things you can never do enough of. But, that doesn’t mean that you give up on dishes because they are never all “done”. Developing determination to keep going along the path will take you a lot farther than burning out because you haven’t reached your destination yet.

Lesson 8 – Some of the best results start out as mistakes

This is an unexpectedly fun part of gardening. Even if you have a detailed plan, things will happen that you don’t expect. You will make mistakes, mother nature will throw you a curve ball, bugs or animals, or rampaging pets will toss your plan out the window.

But that doesn’t mean all your hard work will be destroyed. Sometimes the thing you didn’t plan for will work better than your plan. You might find a garden solution you had to come up with because your first plan didn’t work is actually better and you keep doing that forever afterwards.

You never know exactly how things will work out in a garden (or in life), but being flexible, solving problems as they come up, and being ready to switch to a better plan if it presents itself is one of the key life lessons from your garden. Don’t get stuck doing what you’ve always done if your new “mistake” is working better. Keep an open mind and don’t let following your original plan stop you from taking accidental short cuts that get you to success faster and easier.

Lesson 9 – Work smarter not harder

I’m not trying to imply that you can avoid all the hard work in a garden. Anything worth doing usually takes some effort and patience. However, any systems you can implement to save you time and effort usually pays off in the long run.

Whether this is documenting what happens so you don’t make the same mistake later, or setting up a schedule with fool proof reminders so you stay consistent with your tasks, or even getting other people involved so they can use their talents in areas you don’t excel at, it can all make a big difference in your success.

Research ahead of time can also make a big difference in how hard it is to succeed. Knowing exactly what to expect (what your plant will look like, how long it takes to grow, how to take care of it, when and how to harvest it) will give you a big head start on getting to the finish line.

Actively looking for ways to improve your garden process can help build skills and learn lessons on how to improve any area of your life.

Lesson 10 – Celebrate!

Last, but certainly not least, probably my kids’ favorite part of gardening – celebrating success. Whether it’s enjoying getting the seeds planted, or celebrating the first ripe strawberry or tomato, they love a good garden party.

Because growing food can be a long and sometimes frustrating process, making sure to take note of how far you’ve come is key to keeping your spirits up for the rest of the journey. Plus, when you’re growing food, it makes sense to literally taste the fruits of your labor along the way.

This is true in most areas of life. Sometimes progress is hard to see, and folks get so wrapped up in anticipating what the next step is, that they don’t take time to enjoy their success. If we’re always looking for what’s next, we’ll never be satisfied with what we already have.

So cut that first strawberry into tiny slivers for everyone to have a taste, or march proudly into the kitchen with that first ripe tomato singing a made-up victory song. Don’t let those milestones pass you by without recognizing that you’ve succeeded.

I honestly think one of the most important parts of teaching kids to garden is making it fun. Even though you can learn a lot of life skills, you can also have a lot of fun and enjoy a lot of tasty food. There are parts that aren’t fun at the time, but even some of those make funny stories to tell later. I’ve learned a lot in my garden and I’ve watched my kids learn and grow there too.

So, get out there and grow some life lessons from the garden!

Ready to start your garden journey? Jump into Mission: Healthy Plants. Your mission, should you choose to accept it is to learn how to care for your plants in every phase from baby seedling to mature harvestable food. Jump into the mini-course today!