“Cons” of Gardening

Last week, I was looking out the window into our garden, and I saw a giant rat!! There have been news reports that warn about aggressive rats that have had their food supplies taken as restaurants are closed, so they have been taking out of the ordinary measures to survive. And now one big one was just taking a little morning meander through our treasured garden space. I don’t know if the rat would have scoped out the space if we didn’t have a garden, but it made me think of all of the surprises that have come along with our garden.

I think most of the unexpected has been good, but there are some aspects that are far from ideal. Each climate and situation is unique, so every person’s experience is certainly different. I’ve identified some of the “cons” that we’ve unexpectedly encountered that will give you some insight if you are planning to start one:

Pests: I think almost any garden will attract bugs and animals that eat what you grow and potentially cause damage to your garden. We’ve put up chicken wire, planted additional flowers/plants that repel pests and attract good ones, sprinkled/sprayed repellent, released ladybugs and other helpful insects, and done a ton of reading and watching videos to figure out what works, doesn’t work, and keeps our garden organic and safe. But it’s a continuous battle to keep your garden healthy and strong while making sure those pesky pests don’t take over.

Small or No Harvests: Sometimes the conditions are not ideal, sometimes there is something wrong that you don’t even know about yet, but you will not always be able to grow what you’ve expected. Radishes the size of a bean, one tomato or pepper on your big plant, a spinach or leafy green with only a few leaves, you can try hard and get barely anything. Sometimes a heat wave or cold front can come and your fragile plants will dry out in a day, or none of your seeds will germinate. All of that is part of the learning process.

Continuous Maintenance: So maybe this one shouldn’t have been a surprise, but whether it’s looking out for pests, watering, trimming/pruning, weeding, or harvesting, plants need continuous care. And most plants, especially when they are small, need the right temperatures, amount of water, and soil to grow well. Once the plant grows big enough and gets used to it’s environment, and you become used to the habits of gardening, it can be very easy, but it does need attention, especially in the beginning.

Learning: I’m not sure if growing is intuitive to some people, but for us, it has taken a lot of reading and talking to other people and trying things out – and we still don’t have it figured out! Knowing when to harvest your plants, knowing how to trim, tips and tricks to improving your garden, we spend at least the same amount of time inside as we do outside with the plants because we are constantly looking things up online or having to find new solutions as we go along.

But with the challenges, I absolutely love having a garden and having access to fresh vegetables, and would recommend gardening to anyone who was able to have one. You can keep your garden small to avoid many of the problems that I’ve mentioned above, but with a little more risk, your unexpected harvest could turn out to be much bigger than expected; you might figure out an ingenious gardening solution; and you will probably learn a lot about your natural surroundings that you’d never noticed before. These surprises, along with seeing/eating the fruition of our hard work has definitely been worth the effort!