When Nobody Sees

The most important thing you will ever do in your garden, nobody is going to see.

Today, my neighbor asked me, “What are you planting? I noticed you hadn’t put in anything new in a while.”

Start your seeds before you need them

I love that my neighbors walk through my garden. It means it is being enjoyed even while it is a work in progress. I didn’t have anything to offer. I told him the truth. “The spirea behind me is still growing. It gets to more than six feet across, but right now it’s just one and a half, so I’m just weeding to keep the space clear for future growth.”

That was all I did with all of my gardening time this weekend. I weeded. I had prepared a few pots of annuals to grow from seed, put them in, watered them, and now they are waiting for warmer, longer days. But I hadn’t “planted” anything. People won’t see those yet.

I don’t mind the question, but it made me think about the very important answer. Put in the work today, so that they will say your garden is beautiful in a few months.

Nobody will know you kept that space weeded.

Nobody will know that you spent hours preparing the seeds which just seem to be blooming now, when they weren’t there before.

Nobody will notice when you go out and cover things over on unusually, shockingly cold nights at the start of summer.

Nobody will comment on your deadheading or on transplanting things to new parts of the garden.

But you need to do the work nobody sees.

It’s true in a garden. It’s true in life.

Get to work doing the hard things that nobody sees, nobody will ever say thank you for, and nobody will ever compliment.

Because when the garden blooms, you will know it looks all the better for it.