Gardening: Creating Your Own Private Paradise

What comes to mind when the word "gardening" crops up (no pun intended) is a lady in her golden years happily oblivious to the outside world, efficiently caring for flowers, shrubs and all other kinds of plants, in her own Garden of Eden. She exudes a radiant glow, free from the stresses of beating deadlines, negotiating contracts, rush hour traffic and stubborn clients. Her world is of contentment and of peace unlike our world where we have too much noise, too much pollution and too many people. Her garden is alive with fragrant blossoms, delicious fruits and beautiful foliage. Far removed from the cold concrete, asphalt roads and migraine inducing computers that we have to live with all day. Gardening has got that appeal that our inner selves seem to crave. Maybe it is because of some unwritten doctrine urging us to return to where creation culminated or maybe because we're really too exhausted and too tired to work again and again or maybe because having a garden adds bonus points when it comes to attracting the opposite sex. Anyway, whatever your reasons are, gardening can add more quality to the way you live and even to some extent, it also adds quantity to your life. However, having a garden does not happen overnight and gardening is not as easy as calling your overly demanding boss using your mobile phone (better let him call you). But having a garden and gardening is not so difficult as building a PowerPoint presentation for a contract worth millions. If you are intent in pursuing gardening as a hobby, then by all means do so. Gardening is a form of art that does essentially require you to have passion for growing plants. Knowledge about fertilizer mixtures, pest controls, composting and soil pH levels come second. In this art form, you will be dealing with living entities not paint and canvass or pencil and paper. That is why, in gardening, it is important that you feel for your plant because they reciprocate whatever emotion you show them. Just like taking care of your dogs, you take them for walks, you pat them on the head and you talk to them. In return, they gladly bestow upon you their undying loyalty. The same is true with gardening, you get them enough sunshine, you water and cultivate them and you talk to them. And in return you can have the satisfying and gratifying feeling of watching them grow. There are no words to describe being part of creation. No kidding. Gardening does not require you to have your own greenhouse nor does it require you to have a plot on your own backyard. You can have your own garden anywhere you want to. You can have it on your rooftop, on your balcony, in a pot on your window, your garage, in your patio or even in your bathroom. There are hundreds of plants that you can grow in those places. Having a hectic schedule is no means a deterrent in having your own garden. There are plants that require less watering and could live in most types of soil. There are also indoor plants, plants that do not require much sunlight, these plants can be for people who live in places where the conditions limit the plants' access to sunlight. Gardening does not cost much to start and it does not cost much to maintain, but the benefits you get would be immeasurable. Just ask the old lady in the garden.