Show Notes

Episode 217: Good Enough Gardening


Shannon is an avid gardener (Janine actively avoids it) and this year her gardening efforts got a very late start. In this episode Shannon and Janine discuss embracing good enough in the garden and acknowledge that an imperfect garden is better than no garden at all.

Discussion topics include:

  • Janine’s aversion to getting her hands dirty
  • Shannon’s gardening-glove strategy
  • How Shannon finds herself getting caught up in perfectionism in gardening
  • Seeing the problems instead of enjoying the successes in the garden
  • How there’s always room for improvement with a garden
  • Shannon’s late start on her garden this year and its ramifications
  • How Shannon let go of perfectionism and bought the (imperfect) plant starts that were available
  • Janine’s good-enough rain garden that requires very little tending
  • Shannon’s rain garden
  • Shannon’s good-enough zinnia garden
  • Embracing good enough gardening next year

Here’s a photo of Janine’s front yard garden:

And here’s Shannon’s zinnia garden that grew from her bedraggled starts and scattered seeds:

2 thoughts on “Episode 217: Good Enough Gardening”

  1. Hi, Janine & Shannon! I always look forward to your weekly podcast and love your message…let it be easy, let go of perfectionism, go for good enough, etc. You always share meaningful, valuable advice, and I purposely save listening to your podcast for the one day of the week when I have a long commute. Listening to you two is like spending time with great friends. Thank you!
    As an avid gardener myself, I am very excited by this week’s topic! I want to recommend a wonderful YouTube channel to Shannon, Garden Answer: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_kg1A_YPAa66hZWq7VPg7Q
    Laura of Garden Answer is also located in Oregon and while she has an enormous garden, her easy-going attitude and approach to gardening are so refreshing and normalizing. She makes tons of mistakes and her followers learn right along with her.

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