Gardening is Hard Work!
John Morgan here with Bob’s Market. This week I want to talk about something that usually pops up when I do presentations on gardening. It is a topic that the horticultural industry as a whole has tried to gloss over. For years they have pushed the convenience and ease of buying hanging baskets, pre-planted combination planters, and bedding plants. Unless you’re new to gardening, you won’t be surprised to hear that GARDENING IS HARD WORK!
Who did marketers think they were fooling? Gardening isn’t easy, gardens need constant care, and landscapes always need work. I think they just bought into the idea of marketing plants like they market other products requiring work, make them easier to use and people will buy it … like a crock pot. The only problem is that plants aren’t really a “set it and forget it” type of thing. Furthermore, marketers missed the entire point of why people garden in the first place!
Gardening has never been about hanging a few baskets on your porch and then retreating indoors to watch some TV. Gardeners love getting our hands dirty! We like to grow our own food, we want to create a more beautiful world around us, we want to take time to enjoy nature, and we enjoy the work. Hear that marketers? Gardeners enjoy the work!
Why waste money on a gym membership when you can get a comparable workout with the added benefit of fresh tomatoes? I don’t want to get into all of the health and wellness benefits of gardening. (I need topics for future blog posts after all!) It’s just astonishing that seemingly not one single marketer in the horticultural industry approached selling plants from this angle over the last decade.
Get ready for more blog posts on not only plant care, but also the healthy lifestyle that gardening promotes. Whether it is the “flexitarian” diet, the benefits of purple foods, or permaculture aided by backyard poultry, we want to give you tools you need to not only grow a beautiful garden but also be as healthy as you can. Gardening is a lifestyle choice, and becoming a gardener can change your life.