Let’s be honest, most people these days garden (verb) because they have to not because they want to. Perhaps it starts out as a hobby (like jogging or stamp collecting – who does these things?) or they inherit some semblance of garden and get romantic notions upkeeping or developing it.

But in the main, gardening is pure hard work.

I was intrigued when I read the title of this post, “Gardening is a wonderful way to relax” [link since removed] but two paragraphs in I was already building up a sweat. Growing veggies to supplement my food bills; undertaking a passionate homemade spaghetti sauce – what’s so relaxing about that?

I actually think this is the biggest lie that Gardening media purports. All we see are the backyards renovated in a weekend or ladies in sunhats smelling the scent from freshly picked roses. Where are the backbreaking images of people removing rocks from their soon-to-be veggie patches? Or the sunburnt faces of people who’ve spent all day weeding their annual borders?

No people, gardening is no picnic. It’s blood, sweat and tears. Years of passion dried up by failures and plants that didn’t want to cooperate. Soil that looked so good on the surface but then revealed its ugly secrets the moment you drove a spade into it.

The title of the post should have been “A Garden CAN BE a great place to relax” for once all the work’s been done it’s the perfect location to sit and enjoy yourself. You can then appreciate all the effort that went into creating those garden beds, or the fruit ripening on the trees that took you years to grow. The veggies don’t look so magazine-perfect but the sense of pride the envelops you as your scan your patch makes you fall in love with them as though they were your own children.

Anyone who tells you that gardening is a great way to relax – isn’t a gardener! They might have a garden but they probably didn’t create it. Gardeners understand relaxation comes after the gardening has happened.