Many gardeners dream of doing something truly amazing in their gardens. They might dream of turning a garden hobby into a whole new lifestyle. They might dream of overhauling the existing space—replacing a boring lawn with something much more eco-friendly and beautiful, or creating a major new wildlife-friendly planting scheme, like a pond and bog garden or a forest garden, for example. They might dream of boosting their self-sufficiency and growing more of their own food.
The options are nearly endless, but all gardeners with a dream have something in common. They have great plans and goals, but have yet to start down the route of actually making it happen. In today’s busy and money-oriented world, it is not always easy to find the time for the things we are really passionate about and care about deeply. But 2022 is the year to bring your garden passion project front and center.
Whatever your own passion project may be, this year it is time to turn it into a reality. Big dreams may not be achieved all at once, but by lavishing some time and attention on the problems and opportunities you encounter, and by taking things slow and steady, one step at a time, you can make your dreams a reality.
Make Plans and a Design for Your Project
As a permaculture garden designer, I help gardeners translate their plans and ambitions into practical, realistic designs. We use visual concept plans to develop full planting plans and implement schedules that help clients bring their garden-related dreams to life.
Not everyone will need assistance to bring their passion projects to the fore; but learning more about permaculture design may help you understand the process, thus giving you a framework for sustainable garden design from which to create your own plan.
Whether you employ a permaculture designer or take matters into your own hands, bringing clarity to your ideas and creating a kind of blueprint for your future work will be key.
Identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
If you really are determined to focus on your passion project this year, it can be helpful to build up a clear situational analysis which can further help you shape your strategies and help you to avoid some common pitfalls.
This means that you should look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that can drive things forward and hold them back. Remember to look at both the garden itself and your own situation in relation to it, in order to build up a clearer picture of your project.
This type of analysis can sometimes be really helpful in identifying the things that you would need to address most urgently to make sure that you meet your goals.
Often a key threat for big garden projects is lack of time. So, consider next how you might be able to make some changes in your life to create more time for the things that you are truly passionate about.
We should all find more time in our lives for the things we love doing and that truly make us happy. Just because we are not being paid for something or making money from it does not mean that we shouldn’t approach it with care and thoughtfulness.
Making plans, creating a design, and analyzing our situations with level heads can help us make sure that our passion projects are far more than just pipe dreams, whatever they may be. And this will give us a firm foundation from which to work as we slowly make our dreams a reality.
