Growing a gardener versus growing a garden is really what gardening is all about in reality. The lessons we glean from gardening can be directly transferred into all areas of life. I want to share some things the garden can teach us to help us grow. If we focus on growing a garden and not as a gardener, there will come a time where we will want to quit and not keep going. Every season will bring its own set of issues, it’s inevitable. It’s the way of gardening, this makes gardening a never ending opportunity to be learning something new.

• Peace – Gardening can bring us peace as we settle into the flow of garden tasks, whether it’s harvesting, tending or something else, being mindful of what we are doing helps settle our minds. There are so many times we get to experience complete peace being in the garden.
• Pride & Celebration – I love to celebrate wins, big or small or any size. As a society we have been taught to not celebrate, to hush the part of us that is proud of what we have accomplished, unless it’s a birthday or promotion, etc. Celebrating and being proud of things that might be considered smaller to some, can be the motivation you need to keep going when a plant dies or something fails to grow. Being proud of growing and harvesting food is something to be really proud of and deserves a celebration. Even showing your kids or others a single tomato or strawberry, can help show you other places in your life that you can be proud of and celebrate. It’s the little things that count.
• Skills & Confidence – Growing a garden will add a ton of new skills to our tool belts, every season. Every time we want to grow something new or a challenge comes up in the garden, it is an opportunity to gain new skills. Growing as a gardener by attaining these new skills will ripple out into other areas of our life. We gain confidence as we gain skills, we can call upon this confidence in our life beyond the garden, which helps us grow.
• Community – Gardeners love to talk about gardening and the garden community is pretty amazing in my opinion! Having such a supportive community is an opportunity to grow friendships and meet new people. Through the amazing people in the gardening community, there is also opportunities to learn new skills beyond gardening.

When we decide to grow a garden, no matter where we live, whatever we have grown, it makes us officially gardeners, period. Through the act of gardening, we have the opportunity to grow as people, as gardeners. There are so many, many lessons the garden can teach us. This is just a minuscule piece of the tip of the iceberg! If you are on the fence about starting a garden, start this year and see how all the growth ripples though out your life. I’d love to hear how you have grown as a gardener by growing a garden, as well as how it is rippled out in your life. Comment below. ⬇️