The Generous Gardener

Lisa's Landscape & Design ♦ 04/17/2011 ♦ Leave a comment

The same emotion that makes something new intimidating, will also make you a poor gardener. If your ego driven to create a garden your friends will envy, your gardening heart just may be in the wrong place. To be a successful gardener I believe you need to be a good student, you need to be willing to experiment and you need to have an open mind.

I have been a gardener most of my life. It began in my Grandparents gardens as a very small girl spending time with my Grandfather studying every subtle nuance in his veggie garden. My Grandparents both paternal and my maternal Grandmother delighted in sharing what they knew with me. I am convinced that this is why I do what I do today.  In my home as a child, being raised by artists in an artist community, information was for the taking…and the giving.

Historically gardeners are good sharers. For centuries gardeners have shared their successes and failures. The founders of our country depended on Natives to teach them and then on each other for generations to eat, live and grow as a nation. While we have gotten a bit far from our roots, we are making a comeback and it is a movement I am proud to be part of.

If you are an experienced gardener, take the time to share your successes. Teach your neighbors healthy, organic ways to green their lawn (better yet, grow food instead of lawns), to grow tomatoes as impressive as yours and to choose the best prize Roses with the least pest and disease issues. If you are a successful organic gardener, you should take every opportunity to share with your friends and neighbors. Perhaps when they have success, they will be eager to learn more and to share with you, their friends and so on.

If you are the student, do not be afraid to seek information, to practice organic gardening and to fail. The best education I have received has been from trial and error. I compiled my list of favorite plants through trial and error, and I have learned what really works and doesn’t work by the many mistakes I have made. I have also learned not to take every gardeners word for it. If I get some great info, I come home and research it. If I find some reliable sources to back it up, I go for it. The neighbor who greens up their lawn with “Weed and Feed” is not the one you want to learn from ;-(. If more people researched the chemicals they use outside, a lot fewer people would ever have used it.

Being a generous gardener means that you are thoughtful about the choices you make and use opportunities to grow, to teach and learn whenever possible. It means that you make time for your children to teach the importance of respecting nature, growing your own food and sharing the gift of time. A generous gardener does not pollute the earth with harmful chemicals, but instead educates themselves about organic alternatives, water conservation and the proper plant selection.

The generous gardener thinks about future generations and the importance of caring for our planet in the kindest least impactful way while reaping the most benefits from it. Emotionally, physically and spiritually…

Happy Gardening!!

Lisa LaPaso

Lisa’s Landscape & Design

“Saving the Planet One Yard at a Time”