When gardening conflicts with social exercise

I found this draft here from June 2012 and found it complete enough to make a point. It reminded me of why I stopped blogging and gardening. More on that at the end of the article. 

I have been having a lot of fun in my gardening adventures so far.  I recall thinking last January that the reason I didn't do more gardening the previous summer was that my new job drained me of any off-time energy.  Then I started the running clinic again this year and remembered that I just didn't have time to garden.  Spending two evenings a week away from a brand new garden is taxing when you look at the sunlight lost.  In addition to the running clinic, I also volunteered for my work's bicycle team for the Tour de Rock.  There went my Saturday mornings along with more weeknights for bike workouts.  Thus March, April, and May found me with very little time for gardening (or writing).  I managed to make time for watering garden and lawn in the mornings so that when I could dedicate evening time again, the plants would still be alive and not completely choked with weeds.

I will not be so quick to volunteer for group events next year.  It's not just the time investment that bothers me.  What really bothers me about volunteering is that my passions and talents were not aligned best with how I was spending my free time.  I volunteered for the running clinic this year as a group leader because I really enjoyed it last year as a participant.  I volunteered for the bike race team because I just bought a new bike and wanted to see what it was like to ride with other bikers.  I'm not much of a pack member.  I would describe myself as more of a lone explorer, not because I don't like people, but because I tend to wander off on my own rather than be led down a path by someone else.  

This Saturday is the big bike race.  Next week I have to travel for work (grr...).  Then I can stop pining away over what I might do with my time and start taking action.  For the moment, I have some time to contemplate the big picture of why I want so desperately to succeed in my gardening endeavors.

Well here it is November 2014 and I have not gardened since I wrote that article. After my business trip, work became so stressful that I had to find another employer. My new workplace is much better, but I did not learn my lesson here and joined a gym and signed up for personal training (contracts are evil).  Then I got pregnant and had a baby. While I was pregnant I became obsessed with early retirement. What I learned has changed my perspective on everything   So between parenthood and a financial epiphany, my priorities have changed. Eventually I will garden again, but it is not my main focus now. 

Digging as a Philosophy

I ate my first homegrown tomato (beefsteak) last week and I have been craving more.  I managed to get 2 more tomatoes since then and one more very close to ripe, but after that there are no more.  That's what I get for only having one tomato plant.

First tomato! What it lacks in size, it makes up for in flavor.


I started digging another garden plot Saturday. However, I did not get very far despite spending a day digging. I found that the area of my yard where I decided to plant my garden is full of rocks. Big rocks. There were also lots of little rocks that seem like one big rock until I dug one after another. I would say that this particular area was 90% rock, 5% dirt, and 5% weeds.

My first shovel strike found this big rock.

The rocks take up most of the space of the hole I dug.


Since it took so long to dig around these rocks, it left me plenty of time to think about how much of a metaphor digging around giant rocks is.

You can only see what's on the surface. It's the same with icebergs: you can't see how deep that rock is until you've dug it up. There is no way to tell how long it will take to get around it. I come across problems like this in software programming all the time. What first appears to be a small problem slowly reveals itself to be a rather large immovable obstacle with no way around it. It simply takes patience and perseverance to keep digging around this obstacle until you find an edge you can use to leverage it out of the way. Trial and error is often the best approach here to narrow your choices of how the handle the obstacle.

Sometimes it seems there is one big rock, when in fact there are two or more. This can confuse things when you think you can go around it. The answer may be to explore the obstacle more to find the seams where it can be readily broken up into manageable pieces. Often when I find a rock cluster and liberate one from the ground, the others loosen easily.

Sometimes when tackling a problem, it seems easiest to blast through it all and break those big rocks. Sure, those rocks are in your way, but even obstacles may have value when handled with care. I found one rock that I finally had to lift out with a rock bar because my shovel couldn't budge it. That rock weighed about 30 pounds and was very big and round. It will look great somewhere in my landscape when I get done digging holes. If I had opted for a pickaxe to get the rock out, I would be left with a bunch of jagged rocks of non-impressive size. Dealing with a life problem by brute forcing through it may seem like a good idea at the time, but often the graceful approach is worth more in the long run since you not only deal with the problem, you learn from the experience. Knowing how to solve such a problem can be worth a lot to people who have been battling the same problem. One example would be someone who spanks their dog or child to make them obey (brute force). A kinder though slower approach to dealing with the unwanted behavior would be to learn what that dog or child wants and use that as a reward for good behavior along with practicing restraint so you can ignore the bad behavior. This will not be a fast or easy approach to achieving the goal of obedience, but you will gain not only obedience but also respect, friendship, and self improvement. You could market this skill of gentle discipline or just enjoy the benefits of your efforts.

I am still working on digging my new garden plot. I may wind up working on it all summer. It is hard work with no shortcuts, but when I am done, I will have the perfect space to put good earth and grow more vegetables. I'll also have plenty of rocks to line the garden bed.