7 Life Lessons we Have Learned From Our First Garden
1. Growth takes time.
You do not plant a seed today and expect it to grow by tomorrow. It doesn’t matter if you water the seed tremendously, expecting it to grow quickly in one day. It won’t. One asset that cannot be manipulated is time. Plant the seed and give it time. It will grow.
This encourages us not to rush any life process that requires growth time. We are learning to appreciate the time growth takes. When you wait for that growth and see it happen, it is very rewarding.
2. Nature is therapeutic.
Hands in the dirt. The smell of live plants. Seeing insects dance around in the garden. It is all such a therapeutic experience. Even though some physical work is involved, the comfort of gardening far surpasses any strain it puts on the body.
3. Learn, then learn some more.
When we started trying to grow things, we figured it would be an easy process. Just get some seeds and throw them in the soil, and they will grow, we will say to myself. But when we tried that a few times, and it didn’t work out, we had to start asking many questions, watching lots of YouTube videos, and even borrowing a gardening book from the library. Ha.
What we thought would be intuitive wasn’t intuitive at all. You see, we grew up partly with our grandma in Cameroon, going to her farms(gardens) and working with her on planting, taking out weeds, and harvesting.
So we thought that was enough experience, but it wasn’t. We learned that not every soil in America could automatically grow food. We had to purchase soil, which was an entirely foreign concept to us.
We have learned to purchase the right soil, sow into the right containers, and place plants where they would receive the right amount of sunshine and water them consistently.
And we are still learning new things about gardening every day. We are so thankful for the YouTube channels that teach about gardening.
This has taught us that we need always be learning. Sometimes, you need to start from the ABCs and learn your way up.
4. You need the right environment to thrive.
Even viable seeds won’t grow when placed in the wrong soil. We tried to nurse some seeds, but only a few sprouted because they were in the wrong soil. We got seed-starting soil and put in seeds from the same batch, and bam, they flourished!
Seeds we nursed for “Njama Njama”, a leafy green vegetable popular in Cameroon. It is known in English as “garden huckleberry”.
The right seeds need the right soil to grow.
5. Nourishment should be continuous.
Plants need continuous care. This teaches us that self-nourishment is not a one-and-done thing. It should be an ongoing process.
Whatever we care for, whether our bodies, relationships or homes should be cared for continuously so they can thrive.
6. Never ever give up.
After failing several times at gardening, we were almost convinced we couldn’t plant anything. But we tried again, and we successfully grew things.
This teaches us that no matter how often you fail at something, you can still succeed. Don’t you ever give up!
7. Victories don’t come by accident.
You can’t just wish a garden to grow well, and it does. You have to put in the work of watering, making sure there is adequate sunlight, protecting plants from intruding animals and more.
When we brought the first transplants from the nursery, some animal ate a good portion of the plants before we could even plant them. We have also caught a squirrel eating our precious vegetables.
This has led us to do a lot of research on how to keep the animals away. We got a repellent spray, which is organic, safe for the plants and seems to be working well.
Whatever gardening throws our way, we will take a deep breath, then research and figure out how to handle it.
So those are the 7 life lessons gardening has taught us. We have barely started, and we still have a long gardening journey ahead.
But we are grateful to be able to enjoy every step of this journey and learn all that we need to learn.
Special thanks to our family friend, Sister Ngum, who has been our go-to person for gardening advice. We are grateful for all you have taught and continue to teach us, sis.
We are really enjoying our time out in the garden. If you can plant something, even just in a container, do it. It may not go as planned, but do your research and try again.
We can’t tell you how many times we failed at gardening because we lost count. But now we have a sweet little garden, which is so rewarding.
Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful week!
