Goal Setting for Gardeners

It's really easy, with the first rush of spring flowers and the budding of trees, to go a little crazy with garden plans. The home improvement stores are full of pansies and other cold-tolerant flowers. Fruit trees sit in their gallon pots to tempt you to find room for just one more. The seed racks are full of the promise of fresh salads and canning days. It's important to keep your garden goals at the forefront of your mind, in order to avoid wasted time and money.

Every gardener has their own personal reasons for growing a garden. For some, it's a means of putting food and flavor on the table, whether that's due to economic or health concerns. For others, it's a source of side income. For flower gardeners, it's the drive to create an oasis of beauty around their home. Some gardeners are motivated by a connection to past generations of gardeners. Some gardeners find simple joy in the smell of freshly turned earth, or in bringing a neglected corner of their yard or patio to life. I think for most gardeners, it's a combination of reasons.

All of the motivations I've listed above are what I would consider "broad" gardening goals. They're the general, overarching reason that motivates a gardener. "I want a beautiful yard", or "I want to know what goes into the food my family eats", or "I want to teach my children to grow their own food, just like my grandparents did". These are all valid, commendable reasons to grow a garden, but if you aren't careful, a broad gardening goal can result in an overwhelmed gardener with empty pockets. I write from experience on that.

For that reason, I like to choose one or two areas to focus my attention on each year before the rush of Spring planting. I set my goals with consideration to how much time, energy and resources I expect to have available. Keeping my focus on my goals helps me to make as much progress as possible in those areas.

What might those focused goals look like? It might be deciding that this year, you want to grow all of the ingredients for your famous spaghetti sauce or salsa recipe. Or it might be choosing to dedicate time and resources to successfully starting your own vegetables and herbs from seed. It might be that this year, you want to prioritize documenting your weather and garden work each day. It might be that you decide this is the year you'll build and plant a grape arbor, or that you'll finally install a beehive in your orchard.

This year, I'm focusing on 3 specific things:

1. Expanding my perennial herb beds

2. Replacing fruit trees that have died

3. Designing the landscaping around my home, now that we're on the home stretch of completing the exterior.

Keeping those goals in mind helps keep me from spending my time and money in areas that don't move my goals forward. It also helps me to resist all of the marketing emails from companies that sell all of the plants that I love.

You might notice that I haven't mentioned anything about growing a flower or vegetable garden. While I do grow flowers and vegetables, and they will receive some of my attention, they aren't my primary focus this year. With that said, if I find a really great deal on plants that don't fit my specific goals, but do fit my broad goal or are on my long-term wish list, they might still home with me, providing that they don't divert needed resources from my goals for this year.

If you need a little help with your goal-setting, I've got a free printable that can help walk you through the process.