Gardening is the best hobby there is

A few years ago when so much of the world found themselves at home, there were several hobbies which rose to the top. Sourdough took the Internet by storm. My friend Lisa’s blog became the Internet’s bread-baking Bible. But following closely behind all things sourdough bread was gardening. In 2020-21, you couldn’t find seeds to save your life. It was wild!

Being someone who has been a hobby gardener for over 10 years, it was fascinating to watch people embrace growing things like never before. I loved watching the public gravitate towards this taste of a slower, simpler way of life. It was such a good reminder of how much gardening can benefit us all!

Different ways gardening positively affects your life

It’s no mystery to me why gardening rose to the top of list of new hobbies acquired during the Covid years. Aside from all of the many benefits, I personally think it’s super FUN!! But in case you need to be reminded why digging in the dirt is the absolute best, here’s just a few ways gardening can improve your life.

• Mental health. Being outside in the garden during an international crisis was a lifesaver! Working with your hands helps you focus. It makes you feel more peaceful and content. It allows you to accomplish things and gain confidence as you learn new skills. If you are anything like me, the aesthetics of gardening can be a huge mood booster. Being surrounded by beautiful living things does wonders for the outlook. Gardening brought so many people hope during a truly trying time.
• Physical health. When you work in the garden you are often hauling, lifting, bending, digging, reaching, you name it. You shovel, you scoop, you get down on your hands and knees and pull weeds. If you are anything like me, working in the garden requires a bunch of walking and carrying tools back and forth to different locations. And there’s nothing better for the backside than pushing a heavy wheelbarrow around.
• Improves your diet. If you choose to grow fruits, vegetables or herbs in your garden spaces you can’t help but eat a healthier diet! Not only are the foods fresher, more nutrient dense, and uncontaminated by any outside forces, but the flavor is infinitely better. You can also dive into medicinal herb gardening, which can give you easily accessible natural remedies for health and healing.
• More time outside, fresh air and sunshine. Being an Oregonian, my body is absolutely starved for Vitamin D after the rainy winter. Long Spring days in the garden are just what the doctor ordered. We purposely plan to finish up our homeschool year early so we can get outside as much as possible in the warmer months. Fresh air and sunshine definitely improve your health and mood! I actually don’t even mind a rainy Spring day outside either. Any day in the garden is a good day!
• Personal satisfaction + self-confidence. There is nothing like pulling weeds to make you feel like you’ve made the world a better place. When I work my way through a bed and stand up to see clean, open soil before me when I’m done, well, there’s nothing better! We can’t control everything in this life, but we can certainly take care of a weedy garden. I’ve also been so surprised how much confidence gardening has given me. The more you try, the more you learn, the more experience you have and the more ambitious you find yourself becoming. It’s such a fun progression!
• Provides endless learning opportunities. As I was just saying, the garden provides endless opportunities for learning and growth. I love that no matter if you are a total novice or an experienced gardener, you are always learning something! People can tend to be intimidated by gardening, but I tell everyone I know that it’s all just trial and error, and nobody is immune from mistakes or the opportunity to learn.
• Self-reliance. I’m not even close to growing all my own food, maybe I never will be, but there is something really steadying about knowing you CAN. I was able to grow enough tomatoes, tomatillos, jalapeños, cilantro and onions this last year to put up a huge supply of salsa and salsa verde. Now, man cannot live on salsa alone, but boy does it feel good to go to my pantry week after week and know that I haven’t had to buy it all year long.

How to get started gardening

This topic probably warrants a post all its own, but getting started gardening does not need to be intimidating. You can approach it any number of ways, and there really is no one right (or wrong) method. It’s all about what works for you, with your lifestyle, in your space, etc. Here’s a few places you can turn to for guidance:

• Gardening books. Have you ever visited the gardening section of your local library? Usually they’re pretty robust! Check out a big stack, take some notes and off you go! If you really love the book, order your own copy! I’ve found a TON of great information and inspiration this way. There is also a HEAP of used gardening books in Thrift stores, on eBay and even Etsy.
  
  Here are two of my favorite gardening books:
  1. The Complete Gardener, by Monty Don.
  2. Martha Stewart’s Gardening: Month by Month, by Martha Stewart.
• YouTube. I’m sure nobody is surprised to hear me say that YouTube is an absolute wealth of knowledge on getting started with gardening. There are gardeners sharing about every possible gardening style in every corner of the world. This is the beauty of our modern times, if you can dream it, you can find it on YouTube.
  
  Here are two of my favorite gardening channels:
  The Seasonal Homestead.
  The Elliott Homestead.
• Ask your Mom. This may sound super silly, but more than likely, you have an older woman (or man!) in your life who knows their way around a garden. My mama has been an invaluable resource for gardening knowledge and know-how and now we share the things we learn back and forth! She introduced me to spring bulbs and I bought her her first dahlia tuber! It’s something we enjoy sharing so much and I’m very thankful for her.

A few tools to help you get started in the garden

The beauty of a garden is that it can be done on a wide variety of scales, which means you can make it affordable for any budget you are working with. None of these tools are absolutely necessary, but they can be nice to have! I’m not a huge gadget person, so you will notice this list is pretty short.

• Pruners. People tend to get real particular about their pruners. Me, I tend to lose them, leave them outside to get rusty and/or have them confiscated by my two enthusiastic little gardeners. So, inexpensive is the best bet for me. Fiskars is usually a pretty sure thing as far as brands go.
• Trowel. I love a beautiful wood-handled instrument. But guess what, in Oregon wood ROTS. And FAST. While it’s not the most aesthetic choice, this Fiskars trowel is a much safer bet for me.
• Hand-held fork. My favorite tools for weeding the garden? My own two hands. Everyone laughs at me when I say that, but I’m actually quiet stubborn about it. A hand-held garden fork and two gloved hands can get a whole lotta work done. This one would be a good choice for lasting in the rain.
• Garden gloves. A good pair of garden gloves will see you through tasks big and small. I have a lot of roses in my garden, so I like a nice sturdy pair, but the nitrile gloves are really great too. Especially in the warmer months!
• Weed bucket. I’ve never invested in an official weed bucket, but I’m thinking this might be the year. I’ve always just used leftover plastic buckets from various tasks, but once full they can get quite heavy and hard to haul to the burn pile. This lightweight tote seems like a perfect option.

Some of my other favorite hobbies

I’ve always been somebody who loves to try lots of different things, but there are a few hobbies that have really stuck around. Besides time in the garden, here’s a few of my other favorite things.

• Fly fishing. I come from good, strong fly-fishing stock. Both of my grandfathers were fly-fisherman, one casting his line all throughout the American West as he served as a ranger for the National Park Service. But it wasn’t until I met my dear friend Richard Thompson that I received my “formal” training. We spent several years fishing Oregon’s lakes and rivers together before my children were born. I am eternally grateful that Richard and I crossed paths, and I miss him and his friendship dearly, not to mention our fishing trips.
• Reading. I vividly remember the first book I ever read on my own as a kid. I was sitting on the floor in our living room, a big drawer full of books pulled out in front of me. I grabbed Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss and for the first time the letters on the page came together and made words. The words flowed together into a story, and I chased that rollicking rhyme through all the pages til the end. It was the best feeling in the world! I could READ! And I haven’t stopped since. Some of my favorite authors are Jane Austen, Ivan Doig, Gene Stratton Porter, Normal McLean, Sally Clarkson, Jean Craighead George and C.S. Lewis.
• Hiking. My parents are probably going to chuckle when they read this because as a child, I was a miserable hiker. I trudged through the woods with a sour attitude and made it known that I did not feel this activity qualified as “fun.” But thank you for enduring my less-than-stellar attitude Mom and Dad, because now I’m so grateful to have had those experiences! My husband and I have hiked all over the West and are bringing up our boys to be enthusiastic hikers themselves. Last summer we hiked almost weekly, May-August and it was an absolute blast!
• Cooking/baking. It’s a little hard for me to consider this a “hobby” since Indo it three times a day for our family, but for a long time I’ve been intrigued with food. I love the transformative nature of a beautiful meal and the relationships that can be built at the table. One of my favorite things to do is sit down with a big stack of cookbooks to read like novels. Cookbooks are magical.

What do you love about gardening?

Are you a gardener already!? Or are you looking to get into it? If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below and I would love to chat all things green with you.

Make sure you save this pin too, so you can remember all the reasons why gardening is the BEST hobby ever! Happy gardening!

Kali

I’m Kali. Oregon mama, farmer’s wife and creator of the Potager book and blog. Join me and as we cook and garden through the seasons!