Is there a greater joy than the joy of gardening? Maybe. But you’d have to try pretty hard to convince me. Gardening means we get to take part in nature’s seasonal magic show. Seemingly from nowhere we have brilliant red, orange, pink, and yellow tulips each Spring. In Summer, tall sunflowers shine bright on corner lots and peek in our windows.
It’s not always the big, obvious things that represent the joy of gardening, though. Sometimes it’s the sweet taste of a perfectly sun-ripened cherry tomato right from the vine. Or your favorite farmer giving you a packet of heirloom cucumber seeds. Other times, happiness comes when we see that last flower of the season or watching the bees drift quietly around the lavender.
There’s plenty of fun along the way, too. In Last Blooms, our gardening hero races against the rain to save the last daylilies of the season. And in Watering Cans and Rain Barrels, we learn that the joy of gardening is about taking things slowly and appreciating the quiet moments along the way.
Often, though, the joy of gardening comes from recognizing that no matter what we do, nature is still the boss. Or to put it another way, no matter how many plants you kill, Hostas will make you feel like you have a green thumb. Writer Sue Ellis reminds us of this in A Hosta for Mrs. Malloy.
These and other stories in this collection showcase the small moments when a tiny flower or the taste of a perfect berry makes the world feel like paradise, even if only for a snapshot of time. I hope you enjoy these stories and can give yourself a moment to share in the joy.
Feel free to stay a while and enjoy all the stories about the joy of gardening we have to share below. And be sure to check out our Joy of Gardening Freebie while you’re here, which features a hand-picked selection of our favorite stories from this category.
Fresh air, nature, flowers, veggies and the satisfaction of nurturing living, growing plants. What’s not to love about gardening? However, getting down on your hands and knees to tend to your blooms can become more challenging with age. If the thought of sitting down on the ground and getting back up is stopping you from […]
As someone creeping up on 80 and still feeling sprightly, I often reflect on how I’ve kept my body moving, my mind sharp, and my spirit young. Turns out, the secret isn’t bottled in a supplement or buried in a self-help book. It’s planted right outside in the garden. My mother was a nurse and […]
Do you have a little dirt under your nails? Maybe you have a bit of green on your hands from pulling weeds? Do you keep a stack of seed catalogs on your bedside table? Do you dream of seedlings and flower buds? Do you have what could only be called a plant obsession? You, my […]
My favorite thing about being a part of this community is the shared gardening wisdom. Today’s piece, “10 Things I Learned from Gardening” is a fun and quirky list of exactly that, so to kick it off, I thought I’d share two things I’ve learned over the years as a gardener. The first is not […]
I’m not saying German food changed my life—but let’s just say, after enough schnitzel, sauerkraut, and German chocolate cake, I started questioning my ancestry, my destiny, and my pants size. Yes, it’s true. For most of my life, I strutted around under the delusion that I had German roots. With surnames like Holt and Kissel […]
I like to think of my family as a gardening family. I love spending an afternoon with my daughter and husband planting seeds, pulling weeds, and enjoying the smell of fresh herbs while we watch the bees busily moving from flower to flower. However, I sometimes forget that not everyone enjoys gardening. I don’t blame […]
There’s no end to the places we can find gardening and planting inspiration. For me, sometimes it’s a good meal that includes a variety of vegetable that I’m not familiar with, or the way a particular color of flower looks against a cloudy Summer sky. Other times, inspiration strikes in the guise of a memory. […]
Buongiorno, my fellow flavor fanatics! It all started so innocently—just a little Italian Wedding Soup on a rainy day, a biscotti or two at breakfast, maybe a splash of Sangiovese for good measure. But before I knew it, I had drifted headlong into a full-blown love affair with Italian cuisine. Not the touristy kind that […]
Cutting your flowers is a great way to naturally decorate the inside of your home and add a little color. Some gardeners even go as far as to specifically grow them to display them indoors. However, once they’ve been cut, they won’t last forever. Follow these tips to know how to keep your cut flowers […]
Zinnias are one of my favorite flowers, and growing zinnias has been an adventure for me, so when I caught the title of this piece, I knew it would be a good one, no matter the outcome. But this story reminds me of all the flower gardeners out there. I have two friends who run […]
