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Top Ten {Reasons I Don’t Garden}

Someone asked me in a recent post that I wrote about doing real food on a budget why I’ve never talked about growing your own vegetables as an option.

Growing your own veggies is a GREAT option, but it’s not usually on my radar because I don’t exactly garden.  It’s on my list of things to do, but I have to admit I am not particularly excited about this prospect.  Here’s why.

1) I have what some might call a black thumb.  Gardening is not intuitive to me, and my flowers have this way of shriveling up and dying on me.

2) I am lazy, so my flowers don’t get watered as they should, so again, they like to shrivel up and die.

3) I do not particularly care for the out-of-doors.  I don’t like bugs, but bugs sure do like gardens.

4) Oh, and the worms.  *shudder*

5) I have this thing about getting my hands and fingernails dirty — I don’t yike it.  Yes, I’m a priss.

6) We have horrible soil.

7) We live in a development with an HOA policy that dictates gardens must blend into the landscape.  I’m not sure how to go about making that work.

8) I am busy.  I don’t have time to add one. more. thing. to my agenda.

9) Gardening would require manual labor.  See #2.

10) I’d have no excuse to wander around the farmer’s market, which is one of my favorite summertime activities.

This post is linked up with Oh Amanda’s Top Ten {Tuesday} carnival.

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22 Responses

  1. My number one reason is also that I am lazy. My husband is not lazy, but doesn’t have a lot of time. Even so, we like to dabble with a summer garden, but the growing season is very short here in CT.

    By the way– your feed isn’t updating for me. The last post that came through was your “Links and Shoutouts.” My other feeds are, so I thought I’d tell you.

    1. I am relying on you to be my guide. We are thinking of doing a small plot this spring/summer, and I intend to use your tutorial. But whether or not it happens is another story…

  2. You should look into square foot gardening https://www.squarefootgardening.com/

    We tried this last year – actually got some yield but when we installed our pool it got moved and fell apart 🙁 It’s not a big undertaking.

    My point being – once its put together – all we did was water it once and a while – and the kids did that for me!

  3. I’ll come work your garden if you’ll come clean my house. I love to be outside but hate housework (even though I can’t stand dirt and clutter).

  4. My husband is a N.Dakota boy transplanted to Texas with farming in his blood. Every spring he gets the itch and he and my daughter plant a nice size garden in our back yard at the side of the house. However, the reality of a hot Texas summer usually sets in about mid-June and then that sucker just FRIES. He starts out with great intentions though. I’m terrible about helping..I despise weeding and all that stuff. I’m a HUGE fan of the farmers market…does that count?

  5. I was actually thinking about a similar concept last night – whether or not to actually pursue raising my own food at home… I decided it’d probably be more effective to just buy from a local farmer, since I would probably be ready to quit before the month was out! LOL Glad I’m not the only one!

  6. That is what I keep Hubby around for…the watering. I forget, kill flowers left and right, but he is fabulous about it. Plus, this year we are getting a timer so that we can set it and not worry about it as much.

  7. I had a fabulous garden at our old house. (The one still sitting on the market after 3.5 years.) It was my first foray into the world of gardening, and I loved it! But you’re right, Jo-Lynne. It’s a tremendous time commitment.

    Right now, we’re living in a townhouse with no yard. So while I get the lust every spring and spend a few hours lustfully trolling my local greenhouse, it’s just not possible for me to garden right now. (Not to mention that I have a toddler and I’m expecting again in May. Babies require the same time commitment as a garden. I can only do one at a time.)

    I am SO THANKFUL for Farmer’s Markets. If you don’t have the time or space to garden, it’s the best of both worlds.

  8. I wouldn’t even know where to start? When do things get planted, how to do it etc But I would love to be able to grow them because they are so expensive and I go thru veggies and fruit like crazy due to green smoothies and juicing.

  9. I love it. I started it as an activity to get me outside with the kids because I hate outdoors too and I just love it. Planting something and watching it grow and then taking care of it…. kind of like being a mom without all the whining. But I don’t do the vegetables, my husband does those. I just do the flower beds.

  10. So a few years back I thought I would do a garden. I was hoping to grow sugar snap peas and eat them right off the stem like I used to at my grandparents house. The first day I saw one ripe enough to eat, I was so excited and thinking of my grandfather and bringing it up to my mouth……… and then saw the BABY SLUG on it! I about passed out. I had my neighbor boy weedeat the garden down the next day. No lie. I’m right there with you.

  11. I also have a black thumb. If someone every gives me a plant I just shake my head and think, “this poor thing doesn’t stand a chance.” My friends also know not to give me those, “friendship bread” recipes…I kill those too. We did our first raised bed garden last year. My husband put up a tall, wire fence to keep out the deer. Some things worked, some didn’t. We grew sugar snap peas–they were so yummy. It was amazing just to pick them off of the vine and eat them. We only got a few tomatoes but nothing compares to home-grown. One night we had a salad of green leaf lettuce, sugar snap peas and tomatoes–all from our garden It was the best salad I’ve ever eaten. Give it a try…sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t, but it’s harder to kill these plants, than it is flowers and other landscaping. 🙂

  12. I am almost nervous writing to you- I am so new to blogging (a week old) and stumbled on to your blog trying to make sure I was using ‘musing’ correctly in a sentence. 🙂 You make it look so easy and have inspired me. God bless you- I became a subsciber!

    1. Well hello! Welcome to the blogosphere. 🙂 I’m so glad you found me and got up the nerve to leave a comment.

  13. Good to know! I keep thinking and thinking and thinking about starting a garden, but the whole thing intimidates me. I think I need a gardening mentor. 🙂

  14. confession. i can’t even keep my herb garden alive. believe me i have tried. every.single.year.

    i can not count the number of houseplants i have killed. to call my thumb black is a compliment. i did plant a tiny garden one year. it was great joy to grow a few scrawny tomatoes and bell peppers, even a couple of squash! i loved it, but it really wasn’t a great success. the amount of $$, time and water i put into it weren’t equal to my scrawny yeild, but i did feel like mother earth and i were on some kind of speaking terms…it was fun while it lasted!

  15. Okay, I have to say that I love you right now LOL You don’t make me feel as bad for not gardening. I’ve tried it a couple times and I HATE pulling the weeds. And I really don’t like being outside either.

    And can I also say that developments with ridiculous rules are just…ridiculous? LOL I don’t understand how a garden can blend….

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