Gardening for Joy
Your garden doesn’t need to be social-media-photo worthy to be beautiful. It should resonate with you and reflect your soul.
Watching birds and other wildlife in my garden brings me joy unlike anything else on Earth.
This is the reason I created this website (as well as the tools I’m creating to help you grow your own dream garden).
I’ve been gardening for many years and I have been so pleased to see the incredible number of people who became interested in gardening back in 2020 during the pandemic. Now, in 2023 when I’m writing this, there are more garden websites and social media accounts out there than I could possibly count, which is great!
I have noticed, however, that most of the accounts I come across are very accomplishment-oriented. There seems to be few websites, blogs, & social media accounts that are aimed at the slow gardener, or the joy-oriented gardener. I’m talking about those of us who are less interested in maximizing our garden than in just enjoying it.
I have lots of daylilies because I personally love them.
So here I am hoping to encourage every one of you that your garden doesn’t have to be “successful” or fruitful or Pinterest-worthy in order to be beautiful (although if it is, that is okay too!).
A beautiful garden is a garden that brings you joy. That’s it.
A beautiful garden to one person is a tropical paradise.
To someone else it’s a kitchen garden full of veggies and herbs with chickens in a pen nearby.
To yet another it’s a garden with rows of flowers to be cut and put on the kitchen island or sell at the farmer’s market.
To my neighbor, it’s a huge field of perfect grass and a few nice shrubs near the house.
To me, it’s a garden lush with trees, shrubs, tropical foliage, flowers of many colors (like daylilies and roses), and absolutely brimming with life– birds, lizards, butterflies, bumblebees, possums, and more.
I want to walk outside and feel my blood pressure instantly drop. I want to feel my soul smile when I wander among my garden touching flower petals and fuzzy leaves.
I want to wander along with leisure, feeling the joy of a garden created by me, for me.
Anole lizards are my constant companions in the garden. Look at this baby anole on my basil plant — isnt’ he cute??
It’s so easy in today’s age to feel the need to make our homes and gardens look immaculate; it’s the curse of the social media age.
But we don’t have to succomb to that pressure. It may take a little effort to break free from the image-conscious world we see online every day, but the very act of creating a garden that brings you joy and which you find beautiful is the perfect cure.
Instead of feeling pressured by social media, use it to gather inspiration and elements you like. Make a file or a Pinterest board for your dream garden.
And then, once you’ve designed it and built it, ENJOY IT!
It’s YOUR garden – it should be an extension of you, reflect your personality and soul, and most importantly, make you happy!
May your garden be a source of endless peace and joy…