Now is a Great Time to Quit Gardening.

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This year was the best year I have ever had gardening, but it has not always been an activity I have enjoyed. In fact, it was eight years ago that I quit gardening.

I was discouraged to the point that I dreaded heading over to the garden I was cooping with a friend. My kids were small, my husband worked, I was forever pregnant or nursing. Driving over to weed our small jungle was becoming more of a burden than than fun. I loved the company but it was not enough to keep me from calling it quits. I wanted to love my garden. I wanted it to be a thing of beauty and peace. I was not gardening to survive. Storing up a bounty for the winter was not the motivator for me to grow food, we owned a restaurant and can get a giant can of green beans for less that $3. I leaned how to can and enjoyed it but it was not my main goal. It was a bonus, that is, if I could find the beans. I would have given up on gardening forever had I not come across two books that changed the way I thought about gardening. The first was my husbands book called “Potager” by Brennan/Vaughan from Chronicle Books, and the other has become my bible of gardening, “All New Square Foot Gardening, Second Edition: The Revolutionary Way to Grow More In Less Space” by Mel Bartholomew. These two books offered the idea of a smaller manageable kitchen garden. As I read I was hooked. The promise of a garden that was beautiful as well as functional was exactly what I was longing for. I quit gardening traditionally that year.

 Want a harvest you can find  at the end of the season? There is another way to garden and it might be the way for you.

I encourage you to quit as well. If you did not enjoy your garden, if you lost the food in the weeds, if you grew $15 veggies after taxes; join me. Quit. Next year start something new. I started with just eight raised beds and I only filled six. You could start with two or one, or a container garden. I encourage you to find a better fit, not so you will quit gardening but so you will love it more.  It had been eight years and this was the best year of gardening ever. I am looking forward to next year and I am even considering a small row garden out back. Nothing big or too overzealous. My life is full and I long for a place of beauty, a restful hobby that nourishes my heart as well as my kids bellies.

  
My end of season assessment this year was very different from eight years ago. Changing to a Square foot garden, has helped me love growing foods again.  It has added year long beauty to my landscape and I never dread weeding because I just do one box at a time, every time I go out side until my plants are well established. I would love to tell you more about how it works.

Do you square foot garden? Share a picture here, I would love to see yours.<

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