Gardening When Life Gets Busy

Gardening When Life Gets Busy. 

There are times when life gets busy, really busy. The sort of busy where you wake up in the morning and already have a list of things that need doing before you've even managed to find your first cup of tea.

• Work.

• Housework.

• Family.

• Appointments.

• Shopping.

• Emails.

• The never-ending laundry.

And then you look out at the garden and realise that your plants haven't exactly been sitting around waiting patiently for you. They've been growing and growing and growing.

The weeds have been growing too, obviously, because weeds have impeccable timing.  And suddenly the garden that normally brings you so much joy can start to feel like another job on the list.

But I've learned something over the years. Your garden doesn't need all of you, all of the time.

You are allowed to have a busy life and a garden.

I think sometimes we see beautiful gardens online and assume that everyone else has it all figured out.

Perfect raised beds.

Perfect rows of vegetables.

Perfectly pruned plants.

Beautiful baskets of freshly harvested vegetables.

Not a weed in sight.

Meanwhile, you're standing in your garden wondering when that one courgette became the size of a canoe.

😂

Real gardens aren't like that.

Real gardens have good days and bad days.

Sometimes we're full of enthusiasm and spend hours outside.

Other times we only have ten minutes.

And sometimes we walk past the garden, look at everything that needs doing and think:

“Not today.”

And that's okay.

Gardening doesn't have to be all or nothing.

You don't have to spend three hours in the garden for your time outside to count.

• Ten minutes counts.

• Five minutes counts.

• Watering your plants counts.

• Picking a few ripe tomatoes counts.

• Checking your seedlings counts.

• Pulling five weeds while you're waiting for the kettle to boil absolutely counts.

There are no gardening police arriving at your door because you didn't deadhead your flowers. Although if there is, I'm hiding behind the compost bin.

The important thing is that small jobs add up.

My favourite kind of gardening on a busy day

When life is particularly hectic, I like to forget the enormous list of things that could be done.

Instead, I ask myself:

“What is the one thing that needs doing today?”

• Maybe the tomatoes need watering.

• Maybe something needs harvesting.

• Maybe a plant needs tying up.

• Maybe there are seedlings that need planting.

• Maybe the greenhouse needs a quick check.

• Maybe the pond needs looking at.

I choose one thing. And once that job is done, anything else is a bonus. Sometimes that one job turns into twenty minutes of pottering around, and sometimes it doesn't.

And that's fine.

The ten-minute garden visit

One of the easiest ways to keep your garden ticking along when life gets busy is to have a little ten-minute garden routine.

You don't need fancy equipment.

Just grab your coffee, your secateurs if you need them, and go outside.

Minute 1–2: Have a look.

Before doing anything, walk around.

• What's changed?

• Is anything wilting?

• Has anything fallen over?

• Are there ripe vegetables waiting to be picked?

Are there flowers attracting bees?

Sometimes simply looking tells you what actually needs attention.

Minute 3–5: Water what needs watering.

Don't automatically water everything.

Check the soil first.

Some plants will be perfectly happy while others are desperately waving tiny imaginary flags saying:

“HELLO! WE'RE THIRSTY!”

Prioritise the plants that genuinely need it.

Minute 6–8: Harvest and/or Deadhead 

. Pick anything ready. Regular harvesting can keep some crops producing, and there's something wonderfully satisfying about bringing a little bowl of food into the kitchen.

Even if that bowl contains three raspberries and one slightly wonky cucumber, it is still a harvest.  If nothing needs picking, deadhead lots of flowers need deadheading to keep them flowering. 

Minute 9–10: Do one tiny job

• Pull a few weeds.

• Tie up a tomato.

• Remove a damaged leaf.

• Check for pests.

• Move a pot.

• Plant something.

Or simply sit down. Yes.

Sitting in the garden counts too.

Don't create a garden that creates more work than joy.

 This is something I'm learning more and more. When planning a garden, it's very easy to think:"I could grow that.” “Oh, I could grow that too.”Then suddenly you've got 47 pots, six varieties of something you've never eaten before and enough seedlings to establish a small commercial nursery.

Ask me how I know this !! 

There is nothing wrong with growing lots of things if you enjoy it.  But if your garden starts making you miserable, it's worth stepping back and asking: “Is this still enjoyable?”

Gardening should add something to your life. It shouldn't become another source of pressure.

 Choose crops that work with your life.

When you're busy, choose vegetables that give you a good return for the effort you put in.

Salad leaves can be brilliant. Herbs are useful. Perennial crops can be wonderful because they come back year after year. Fruit bushes can provide harvests without needing daily attention. And containers can make it easier to keep an eye on smaller crops.

It doesn't mean you can't grow the things that need more attention. It just means you can balance them with some easier wins. Because sometimes you need a vegetable that says: "Don't worry, I've got this.”

And other times you get a vegetable that needs checking every five minutes like an anxious toddler.

Let some things be messy

When life gets busy, one of the first things I let go of is perfection.

The garden might not be perfectly weed-free.

The pots might not all match.

The plants might not be perfectly spaced.

There might be leaves lying around.

There might be flowers that have gone to seed.

And there might be a suspiciously large collection of pots that I absolutely intend to use one day.

But the garden is still alive.

Wildlife doesn't care whether my pots match.

The bees don't care if I've missed a weed.

The birds certainly aren't checking whether I've remembered to tidy the borders.

Nature is wonderfully forgiving.

And sometimes the garden needs to wait.

This might be the hardest lesson for a gardener. Sometimes you have to walk away.

 Not because you've failed.

Not because you don't care.

Because life happens.

If you can't get outside today, the garden will still be there tomorrow. If you miss a few days, you haven't failed at gardening.  If your plans change, you can change your plans. If something doesn't get planted exactly when you intended, you can try again.

Gardening isn't a race.

There is no finish line. There is always another season.

The garden can actually help when life is busy.

And this is the strange little contradiction of gardening. When life gets busy, the garden can feel like one more thing you have to do.

 But sometimes it's exactly the thing you need. You don't have to go outside and work.

You can simply step outside.

• Touch the soil.

• Look at the flowers.

• Watch a bee.

• Listen to the birds.

•  Pick a strawberry.

•  Check the pond.

•  Take a breath.

 For a few minutes, you aren't answering emails or thinking about tomorrow's jobs.

 You're just there.

 And sometimes ten quiet minutes in the garden can be worth far more than an hour spent trying to force yourself through a giant to-do list.

Your garden doesn't need to be perfect.

This is something I've had to remind myself of too, because there will always be something to do. There will always be another weed and another plant to prune.

 Another pot to fill. Another seed to sow. Another job that could be done.

But there will never be a day when the garden is completely finished. Because gardens aren't finished.

 They're living things.  They're constantly changing, and perhaps that's the joy of them. So when life gets busy, don't abandon your garden because you can't give it everything.

Give it what you can, be it five minutes, ten minutes. An afternoon when you have it. A quick harvest on the way past. A cup of tea sitting beside your favourite plants.

Whatever you can manage. And if all you do today is walk outside, look at your plants and say: “I'll deal with you tomorrow.”That's okay too.

Tomorrow is another gardening day. 

Remember...

You don't have to be a perfect gardener.

You don't have to have a perfect garden.

And you certainly don't have to do everything.

• Grow what you enjoy.

• Do what you can.

• Leave the rest until tomorrow.

And most importantly...

Don't let gardening become another thing you have to be perfect at. Let it be the place you come to escape all the things you have to be perfect at. Because sometimes, when life gets busy, the best thing you can grow isn't a vegetable at all.

It's a little bit of peace.  Love Amber x