Rome wasn’t built in a day

And neither was a garden!

One of the comments I hear most often about my garden is, “You must spend a lot of time in your garden!”

I hear that with both inflections…

Good: This is such a beautiful, peaceful retreat you have created, you must spend a lot of time in it!

And

Not So Good: This looks like a lot of work! You must spend a lot of time out here taking care of it!

My general answer is, Well, Yes and Yes but also… Not so much.

Yes, my garden is a lot of work. For the most part, though, it is very enjoyable work. Gardening soothes my soul and calms my mind. Yes, I do spend a lot of time in the garden, both for pleasure (relaxing) and because the weeds aren’t going to pull themselves. But also – not so much, because what visitors to my garden see is… 28 years of work.

Yes, I often spend entire days outside in the garden, especially in late winter and early spring when I am cutting back the previous year’s flower stalks and resetting my vegetables from cool season crops to summer ones. And I did just spend ten hours weeding and mulching the Saturday before a garden club came to tour my gardens. Where many people might see that as work, I see that as (mostly) pleasurable. The few exceptions are junk trees, briars and trumpet vine, but that is where the ritual morning and/or evening garden stroll comes in handy. Newly sprouted cedar elm or oak trees, for example, are easy to spot and pluck up. Give them a season and they are a chore to remove.

I (even? especially?) enjoy the physical aspect of hauling mulch, as it reminds me to be thankful for the ability to do such tasks. It wasn’t that long ago (four years ago, to be exact) that I didn’t know if I would ever be strong enough to haul mulch again. Our bodies are designed for movement and physical work, something that is often overlooked in today’s world.

But Rome wasn’t built in a day and it takes time for a garden to develop, to come together, to mature and evolve and settle in. I can look back at photographs taken of our property 20… 25… 28 years ago and think, I have put a lot of work in to this garden! But what I see is the evolution of both the garden and the gardener. I don’t now remember the back breaking work of removing so much sod, hauling in bricks and rocks and dump truck loads of compost and mulch. This garden wasn’t built in a day. It grew day by day and season by season until I am now approaching 30 years of living and gardening here. A labor of love perhaps, but a sanctuary for this gardener and for the visitors that flutter through.

Photograph taken May 17, 2024, in my Southern Denton County, Texas, garden.