It’s been an intense winter for much of Michigan, especially in these last few months, so the warmer temperatures and sprouting buds on trees and in gardens is a welcomed and long-awaited sign of spring finally here. A season where we can embrace the outdoors without bundling up and enjoy the new signs of life found in all parts of nature — I’ve grown to love this time of year just as much as the rest, and starting our own little garden at home is a big reason why it’s now a favorite.
Gardening at first, like any task or project never done before, seemed daunting and so diffi cult that I put it off for the first few years living here. But as I slowly accumulated indoor house plants and kept them alive, the more doable the idea of sowing a garden outside became.
Last year, I chaotically began clearing out the areas by our home that seemed preferable for growth, and from there, it was just a matter of putting the shrubs in the ground. I had over a dozen varieties of both flowers and vegetables growing in pots, and the rest growing in the newly cleared area outside the house. Some flowers and vegetables didn’t make it, but most of what we planted did, so I’m fairly excited to get my hands dirty again to continue on in my gardening journey.
While it’s great to have a detailed plan of what you want your garden to look like and where things will go, I highly suggest just doing what you can to start — if that means picking up some flowers, shrubs, and vegetables that you like, begin there and see how the plant acclimates. You’ll learn eventually (through trial and error) what works and what doesn’t work in the soil, but getting the plants in the dirt and starting that growth process is the first step to learning what kind of gardening is possible for you and your space.
I started planting my flower and vegetable seed varieties indoors in March, much earlier than last year when I started near the end of April and beginning of May. With more time for the seeds to grow, I can’t wait to see what flourishes this time around. If you have the time and space for it, gardening is such a rewarding experience for so many reasons. You’re not only beautifying your surrounding area, but creating a space loved by pollinators that are essential to the overall health of ecosystems. I’m no master gardener by any means, but understanding even that is good enough reason for me to keep trying at this newish hobby of mine.
Although the times seem anything but normal, it’s always important to stop and enjoy the small joys in life — whether that be through working in the garden and watching your plants grow or another way. As impossible and overwhelming as it first seemed, it’s now one of my favorite/unexpected hobbies to date.
