Embrace Patience For A Happier Life

What is the most important ingredient for creating a garden?

Is it the sunlight necessary for plants to grow or the plants themselves?

Is it the water needed for all life or is it the soil?

Or is it patience?

Patience? Yes, that’s it! I believe the most important ingredient for creating a garden is patience.

It takes patience to wait through the winter for spring to arrive and bring the garden back to life,

… to sow a seed and wait for it to germinate,

… to watch a bloom become a ripe, sun-warmed tomato,

… to plant a tree you can carry in one hand and watch it grow enough to provide a shady spot to rest under,

… to know where in the garden the shade is dappled and where the sun is brightest,

… to pile up the debris of the garden and then harvest it as rich compost.

It takes patience to garden successfully, to create a lasting garden. There is often as much time spent patiently waiting in a garden, as there is time spent actually gardening to create the garden.

Once I figured this out, that a good dose of patience is needed in the garden, gardening became a lot easier. I embrace patience and accept that gardening is a process that isn't easily hurried along.

I recommend that if anyone is going to do this gardening thing for the long haul, for life, they should embrace patience, too, for a happier life in the garden.

(Pictured above is “Tower Pink” columbine (Aquilegia sp.) as it blooms once again in my garden. I patiently started these double columbines from seed back in 2001, and they’ve been blooming in my garden every spring since then. A reward for embracing patience!)