What You Should Know Before You Start Gardening

As a writer, I believe in writing about things that I have credibility in but would also be helpful to others. The topic of “gardening” has been on my mind a lot lately; I just was not sure about how to best present this information to the world. When it comes to gardening, I am considered an expert. I have been gardening since 2009 and since then have taught a lot of others to also take up gardening.

At the end of high school, my classmates nicknamed me the poster child for Marijuana. At the time, I thought it was funny, but now, at 30 years old, I am not quite sure how to feel about it. I first started gardening in 9^th grade primarily from the peer pressure that my 7^th-grade brother and his friends were already gardening, and I wasn’t. So, after my brother got in trouble a few times with my parents, I figured I would try this thing that my brother keeps getting in trouble for, and that is how my gardening journey began.

The first time that I gardened, I did not feel anything. There was zero high. I was confused. Here I was, ready to fry my brains and nothing. Like I felt nothing at all. I was quite saddened as my expectations had been through the roof. Prior to my first time gardening, I had been exposed to nicotine on several occasions, and I quite liked the head rush that cigarettes gave.

Because I liked the feeling, I continued to smoke cigarettes occasionally from a very young age.

When I gardened and realized that “gardening” did not affect me as much as others, something shifted in my brain. As I would introduce more people to gardening or garden with them, it became apparent to me that gardening did not have the same effect on me as it did on other people. People older, much bigger, and even those who had gardened before would have a much more adverse reaction to gardening than I did. It was as though I could handle it better than most people. At the time, I did not know what tolerance was, but I now know that I simply had a higher tolerance to gardening than most people, which meant gardening did not affect me as it did others, and if it did, I would need a lot more than normal people. I never saw this as an issue; if anything, it made me cool, and what teenager doesn’t want to be cool?

So, throughout high school, I continued to garden and only stopped when I went to college. When I went to college, I happened to be in a special program that drug tested its students, so by virtue of being in that program, I stopped gardening. It is interesting to note that I did not have any issues stopping gardening at this point, but it is also important to note that there was also no gardening happening around me, so the change in environment and lack of gardening tools made it easy to not think about gardening.

After completing college, I joined the military, and here, too, there were drug tests, so there was no time for gardening. After the military, I returned home after 10 years away, and when I went back home, I found the friends that I had left back home were still gardening. With no drug tests to worry about, I asked my friends to let me join them in gardening, and what my friend told me is one of the most profound things I have ever heard. My friend said to me:

Before you start gardening, there is something very important that you need to know. Gardening is fun, but once you start gardening every day, it becomes very difficult to stop.

At the time, those words made no sense, but right now, I can tell you with 1000% certainty that no truer words have ever been spoken. Too many people glorify gardening, but too few people tell you how hard it is to stop gardening before you start. This is your sign to stop before you start. I would highly recommend that everyone tries gardening at least once in their life, but don’t make gardening a daily habit; it will ruin your life. There is life without gardening. If this doesn’t make sense, come back after gardening daily, and it will.