You’ve probably heard of the slow food movement – it’s all about enhancing our connection with the food that we eat. Well, slow gardening is an offshoot of that. It’s a mindset that encourages gardeners to slow down and really anticipate and appreciate everything that they do in their garden. Slow gardening does away with all of the stress that a garden can sometimes bring, leaving you with a space that you genuinely enjoy each time you enter it.
Still a little confused? Here’s how to take your very first slow gardening steps. Once you do, you’ll soon have a much better understanding of how the concept works and other ways in which you can embrace it.
Get Rid of the Stress
Many people often end up feeling stressed out when faced with the long list of chores that need to be completed in their garden. If you can relate, it’s time for a change. How? By getting rid of any elements in your garden that contribute to that stress.
For example, if you hate having to mow your lawn, replace your lawn with a wildflower meadow that only needs to be cut once or twice a year. Hate fertilising your plants every few weeks? Find alternatives that don’t need to be fed. The same applies to watering – if you resent spending time each evening in the summer manually watering your plants, think about swapping them with plants that have better drought resistance and don’t need the supplementary watering.
Grow Your Own Food
Let’s face it – sometimes, growing your own food can be extremely time-consuming. However, spending all of those months nurturing your tomato vines instead of running to the shop to buy a bag of tomatoes means that you’ll be able to experience the exquisite flavour of freshly picked tomatoes – something that you’ll never get with store-bought alternatives. This is exactly what both slow food and slow gardening is all about.
That said, we did just mention doing away with stress, and some crops, like the above-mentioned tomatoes, can sometimes be very stressful to grow. So, we would recommend looking for low-maintenance and perennial food-producing plants. They’ll give you a harvest each year without much effort at all on your part. Our top picks? Citrus trees are great for this, as are mango trees, avocado trees, and olive trees. Get one of each and you could be harvesting fruit throughout the year!
Don’t Worry About What Others Think
Trying to keep up with the latest gardening trends to impress your neighbours? Or maybe your focus is on making your garden as pretty as possible for visiting guests.
Well, it’s time to put yourself first. Stop worrying about how others perceive your garden and instead do what makes you happy.
Remember – slow gardening is all about appreciating and savouring the time that you spend in your garden. So, do what you need to do to make this happen!