GET GROWING!
“MAY YOU LIVE IN A WORLD FULL OF GARDENERS”
Many gardeners wrestle with the anxiety of getting everything started “in time” and fear of missing the boat if they are a few days delayed. Image credit: ANDREA PIACQUADIO on Pexels.
BY LADYBUG
I know Nicole Johnsey Burke is a woman after my heart when I read the dedication to her children: I write with the hope that you will always live in a world full of gardeners.
And yet, I approached her book, The 5-Minute Gardener, with a healthy dose of scepticism.
I spend hours in the garden only to tick off a couple of tasks on my list – the list that grows ever longer with the season. So I don’t see myself accomplishing much in mere five minutes.
It doesn’t help that there she is, on the cover, kneeling in what has to be a muddy yard in a pristine white top with her hair looking like she just stepped out of a salon appointment. Which serious gardener ever looked like that, I mutter.
And the tagline, “Year-round garden habits for busy people” makes me laugh out loud. Year-round? Where I live? In my dreams! But I discover the joke’s on me when I read that Johnsey Burke has gardened year-round in three climes, including Chicago.
My interest piqued, I dive in. And learn that it is indeed possible to do so with a simple flip of a switch in my head. The switch that defines (and possibly restricts) my understanding of just what a “garden” is. After all, I have tons of indoor plants that I look after year-round and also tropicals that overwinter indoors. But I never really thought of watering, pinching off leaves, watching for bugs, and all the other tasks involved in keeping them healthy as “gardening”.
She shares her own learning experiences as a novice gardener: “We got our hands dirty, we dug in, and most of all, we learned valuable lessons that we would’ve had to learn the next summer if we’d waited.”
Underscoring a fact that many others have made, that it takes a few days to establish a habit, she quotes Jim Ryun: “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
A 5-minute window may seem insignificant or “not enough” but it’s actually just right if you want to be sure a new habit – like gardening! – sticks. Five minutes is enough to walk through the garden, to deeply water a flower bed, to thin a patch of radish seedlings, to prune a tomato plant, to make a green smoothie, or to prepare a delicious dip with freshly harvested herbs.
Tips for 5-minute tasks in the cold season include directly planting seeds in the soil before the ground freezes so they’ll be the first to sprout and grow when the weather warms. And just like that, I see visions of harvesting kale, spinach, beets and carrots for a salad way earlier in the season than I am used to.
In sections called Real Fast Food, Johnsey Burke lists her favourite recipes for dips, wraps, salads, vinaigrettes and pizzas.
And under Quick Picks she lists quick ideas one can pick from to make the most of a free moment in different seasons. In our infamous winters, for instance, one could:
• Take an overhead garden photo
• Make garden plans.
• Order seeds.
• Organize old seeds.
• Set up grow lights.
• Make plant tags.
You get the idea.
In the cool season, when one can venture outside, one can build an obelisk trellis following her simple design. I certainly plan on attempting one next April!
Johnsey Burke also writes about something many gardeners wrestle with, the anxiety of getting everything started “in time”, and the fear of missing the boat if we are a few days delayed.
“It’s as if there’ this one magical day when you’re allowed to start planting outdoors and you’re either waiting for it or you missed it. There’s no need to fear – that day is more like a month... those long, sunny days are forgiving and they add up.”
Under Give Me Five, 5-minute tasks for the warm season include:
• Make a big spring salad to celebrate the end of the cool season.
• Pass along extra lettuce to friends and neighbours.
Her friends often ask her if all her gardening means she can skip visits to the grocery store. Not so, she tells them.
“I don’t garden to go off the grid, grow all my own food, or to avoid the grocery. I don’t live to garden. I garden to live better.”
To make the most of your 5 minutes in the garden, visit fiveminutegardenbook.com for gardener habit trackers, journal prompts, daily tasks and seasonal recipes.
The 5-Minute Gardener by Nicole Johnsey Burke is published by Hay House, $33.99.