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A Hungarian-American Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi made a name for himself by recognizing and naming the psychological concept of flow. This is a mental state that allows you to be fully focused on what you’re doing at the moment. The key thing in doing everything lies in getting into this flow channels, which means doing things that are challenging just so much that they’re not boring and easy enough not to cause anxiety. Gardening is an amazing example of how this works.
On its own, gardening can help you fight stress, increase the value of your property and learn some vital agricultural and organizational skills in general. This raises a crucial question – if gardening is so great, why isn’t everyone doing it?
Well, simply because some people consider it to be too hard, too time-consuming and, overall, too complex. Fortunately, there are more than a few tricks that are capable of making gardening appealing and relaxing place to be.
In This Post:
1. Companion Planting
The term companion planting implies a scenario in which you choose those plants that work well together and plant them next to each other. For instance, potatoes and even marigolds are known to repel some bean beetles, which is why you might want to plant them next to beans.
Other plants that go alongside beans are cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, and cucumbers (which are also known to act as a mild insect repellant). While some may argue that something that requires this much planning and strategy can never be considered easy, keep in mind that this is a one-time effort that will save you hours and hours of work in the future.
2. Tools Save Effort
One of the universal rules, that holds true for centuries, is the fact that adequate tools save effort, however, tool maintenance, on its own, can be quite troublesome.
This is why you need to store them in a safe and dry spot. In a case where you have too many different pieces of gardening equipment or some of the equipment you own, use a complex mechanism, you might want to place them in a shed or a garage. If not, you might want to keep your tools in a safe locker on a patio or in your garden.
3. Automating Your Gardening Efforts
Those who are afraid of extra work that that isn’t afraid of an extra investment might want to look into gadgets that will help automate their gardening efforts. We’re talking about a Wi-Fi controlled sprinkler system, that can be programmed to deal with your garden’s irrigation system on its own.
It really doesn’t get any more effort-saving than this. From the perspective of a budget, things are also looking up, due to the fact that you can get this upgrade for as little as $200 (for some low-end equipment) and you get to be more frugal with the water consumption from that point on.
4. Reduce the Amount of Lawn
The problem with a lawn is that it requires constant work in form of maintenance and effort. However, it’s on you to decide how much lawn you need to have. For the rest, you can plant a vegetable garden or some flower beds, even though this may sound a bit counterintuitive, both of these require less work (all together) than a lawn, over a long period of time. Another option you should probably consider is paving a path through your garden. A gravel path can be made for as little as $6 per square foot.
5. Raised Garden Beds
Another thing worth keeping an eye out for is the height of your garden beds. The problem with low garden beds lies in the fact that they require a lot of kneeling and squatting, which, on its own poses a massive problem for a lot of people. Over the course of time, it may cause some pain to one’s joints and muscles, which can make even the most passionate of gardeners to re-examine their commitment to this hobby and lifestyle. So, raised garden beds are the best course of action and a handy addition to your lazy-gardening to-do list.
6. Install a Hammock
Finally, there’s no better incentive to spend some time in your garden than to install a swinging hammock. Some may argue that this notion is too compelling and inviting and it will, as such, distract you from your gardening duties 24/7, however, this is not necessarily the case. What if you were to look at things the other way around. What if the hammock was a primary objective and a bit of pruning, watering, and mowing is only a side-objective you tend to on your way there? With this mindset, a lot can be achieved.
In Conclusion
With these six trends in your arsenal, you’ll make your gardening efforts into an utmost paradox by making a system based on lazy efficiency. The latter objective can even help you turn your laziness into an advantage and the same goes for some other trends, as well. A Wi-Fi sprinkler can make tech-savvy people more interested in gardening than they ever were. Overall, a clean win-win scenario for both you and your garden.
