Monday, June 22, 2009

Reasons why......

....you might be hesitant to get started gardening and my personal solution/rebuttal:

1. " I live in an apartment", "I have only a small backyard"

solution(s)- Container gardening. I've seen people use everything from actual flower pots, to coffee cans, to buckets, and even cheap plastic storage tubs from Walmart.
You can grow an entire salad garden on your window sill or in a pot on your back porch. Dwarf varieties of carrots grow well this way. So do herbs.


2. " I don't have time for that kind of thing."

rebuttal- Yes you do. The first year I gardened, all I did was put some seeds in the ground and water occasionally. I purposely chose easy care plants and kept it all low key so I would not get overwhelmed. It is only as hard as you make it!


3. " Look at my thumb. It's black! I'll kill all the plants."

rebuttal- There is no such thing as having a green thumb or a black thumb. If you want something badly enough- YOU CAN DO IT!

4. " Isn't gardening an expensive hobby?"

rebuttal- Again, it's only as expensive as you make it. Buy seeds once. After that, let some of your plants go to seed, collect those and plant them next year. If you save your own, you won't have to continually buy them.

Also, get your hands on the current issue of Backwoods Home Magazine. They have the cheapest, most innovative garden ideas. It isn't necessary to buy a ton of gadgets to have a good garden.

5." Gardening is for women, or old people. "

rebuttal- Not anymore. Although many of us have nostalgic memories of Grandma's kitchen garden, today's gardeners are of every age, social/economic strata and walk of life. They have discovered what others already know: gardening is fun and rewarding.

6. "My neighbors will complain about my garden"

rebuttal- Because my backyard is all shade, my garden is in my front yard closest to the street. I live in a nice neighborhood and feared complaints. My neighbors LOVE looking at our veggies. They have had nothing but nice things to say about it. Just keep your space clean and attractive.


If you have any other concerns or questions, ask me. If I don't have the answer, I will go find it.

hugs,
-E

2 comments:

Melissa Henning said...

I really liked reading this. Those are a lot of my excuses. Another excuse is that I have no idea what I am doing! I bought some seeds and planted them in our planter next to our driveway. I did everything I was supposed to. They said it would be like 12-15 days before I would see any little sprouts. I did! I watered and cared for them. Then my father-in-law came over. I proudly showed him my babies that I had been caring for but...they were weeds! My seeds never sprouted! I even bought some flowers made for vegas weather and 6 out of 12 of them are dead! lolol.

I'm gonna make my hubby read this too lol. Someday I want to plant veggies. Until then, I will try to keep my houseplants alive lol (2 more just died!!! I accidentally left them outside though. Doh!).

Melissa Henning said...

I meant to say that they did (sprout) not "i did" lol