ShareThisMy friend and fellow gardening author, Felder Rushing, coined a term not too long ago: "slow gardening." According to Felder, "slow gardening isn't lazy or passive -- it actually involves doing more stuff, but carefully selected to be productive without senseless, repetitive chores. By focusing on seasonal rhythms and local conditions, it helps the gardener get more from the garden while better appreciating how time and energy -- and leisure time -- are spent."I've thought about Felder and this personally helpful new term many times since first hearing of it. For years, I have advocated these important ideas frequently as I speak to audiences around the country and write about them, having never been able to assign such a simple term to this very important concept.I readily embraced slow gardening and live by it myself. Since moving to North Carolina over two years ago, my new landscape is a textbook example of the slow-gardening approach. It isn't anywhere close to being finished -- nor will it ever be since gardens are never really finished. However, it has taken far longer than I ever imagined.I have to confess, Felder suggests that this practice be deliberate, more of a conscious effort to step back, take a deep breath and relax while you actually ENJOY the garden. Now that's a concept I'll have to get used to. Not the "enjoy" part. That's no problem. It's the "breathing" part I struggle with. Candidly, life on the road for television and speaking had more to do with embracing this slow approach than any voluntary action on my part!Yes, I'm one of those guys who are always in a hurry to get it done. I want the instant impact just like the rest of us. However, in my gardening maturity, I've learned that it really does pay to take it slow. Feel the land. Let it grow on you for a while. Observe your landscape for a full year while you process the cycles in your mind. How does that sound? Are you buying it?As much as I'm using it as my justification as to why my garden and landscape are taking so long to get completed, it really is true at the same time. I do look at the patterns of the sun, observe the foot traffic, imagine how I'd like it to be, etc.In this manner, I can design a truly functional and beautiful landscape. I can think about what I want growing there and change my mind many times before actually committing my wallet and efforts to the purchase and the planting. My design is really coming together nicely, albeit much of it still in my head.Yes, it's all coming together ... slowly, very slowly.Thanks, Felder!(Joe Lamp'l, host of "Fresh From the Garden" on the DIY Network and "GardenSMART" on PBS, is a Master Gardener and author. For more information, visit www.joegardener.com and www.DIYnetwork.com. For more stories, visit www.scrippsnews.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
The concept of 'slow gardening' can grow on one
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