This New Year is the perfect time to look back at your garden and look forward to the new opportunities standing before you. So, here are some gardening resolutions you can set this year.
Keep On Learning
Continuous learning refers to when a person never stops learning something new until his death.
Society usually expects us to be “complete adults” and be able to put all that we’ve learned to work and become productive. Once we reach the adulthood phase in our lives, for example, people around us do not expect us to learn more but to start “teaching” what we know. So, our social environment and society subconsciously signal to us that learning is not important and needed anymore. Similarly, after spending so much time in the garden, people expect you to teach what you know about gardening. However, keep in mind that even gardening experts are committed to learning new skills or acquiring new knowledge.
A lifelong learner is someone who incorporates continuous learning as part of their work and lifestyle. And, as a gardener, you need to keep track and document what’s new and happening with regard to gardening.
Here are some tips to help you continue learning:
- Keep a garden journal and write down every new thing that you discover about gardening in this journal.
- Expand your garden library by treating yourself to a new book every month.
- Follow gardening experts on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok to see what they are up to.
- Start taking online gardening courses.
- Sign up for newsletters from famous gardening websites.
Stop Procrastinating
Procrastination is a bad habit that we develop over a period of time. Like other bad habits, it is difficult to break from this “laziness” (my definition of procrastination) as it can transform your nature in such a way that it becomes a part of you. Others believe that procrastination is like a short circuit – it makes us burn a ton of energy while getting almost nothing of value from it.
And, this bad habit is often believed to be the worst enemy of gardeners.
It’s very therapeutic and relaxing to be in the garden, surrounded by nature. Sitting on the patio or just lying on the grass –for a minute or two – is wonderful. However, that can swiftly transform into the perfect excuse to delay the tackling of undesirable gardening tasks like raking, mowing the lawn or weeding.
In gardening, there are some tasks to that you really need to dedicate a lot of time. For instance, repairing or putting up a new fence will take more than five minutes and so the five-minute rule cannot be applied. However, if you follow the tips below, you’d be able to deal with any kind of gardening task.
- You need to develop the habit of planning everything. You must never start a task –no matter how small and simple it might seem –without having a definite plan as to how you are going to do it. It is also important to have a timeframe for all your gardening tasks.
- Many gardeners choose to do the easier and more pleasant things first and postpone the difficult and unpleasant tasks for later. You must change this habit and always start with difficult and unpleasant gardening tasks. If you force yourself to do these undesirable tasks first, you will be waiting to do the pleasant ones after.
- Following a routine can help in doing everything on time. For instance, you can have a fixed time for cleaning the lawn or watering. You cannot wait for the right mood to do the things that you must do. Give ample time for everything in your gardening routine so that you miss nothing and cover everything. You see, when you follow a routine, you will never postpone a thing.
