It’s an incredibly rewarding hobby. I mainly do ornamental flowers because there are so many critters here that want to eat any veggies I try to grow, but I have plans for a chicken wire hoop house/veggie fortress this spring.

I’ve heard that it’s one of the best hobbies for mental health because it includes exercise and sunshine as well as immediate gratification (the way a bed looks after it’s been weeded, or a plant after it’s been carefully deadheaded or pruned, planting already blooming flowers from the nursery) and long term/delayed gratification (planting a seed that won’t bloom for months or years, encouraging native plants to flourish and crowd out invasive plants and weeds).

One of my favorite things is the volunteers, the flowers that come from the fallen seeds of flowers I planted. You never know what color they are going to be once they bloom, it’s always a fun surprise after waiting for weeks or months after spotting a little volunteer to see what color it will bloom!