5 Money Lessons Gardening Taught Me About Money
Want a money lesson to improve your finances in an unconventional way? Get a few plants! Taking care of a garden and a home’s finances is surprisingly similar. Here’s how!
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Last year I bought my first house.
The previous owner was an older woman who had created quite a garden in the backyard. I’ve spent many hours in that area of the house.
I’ve watered the plants, I’ve switched them around, and in the process, I’ve learned quite a bit.
In fact, I’ve realized that gardening is surprisingly similar to taking care of a home’s finances, so today, I’d like to share with you what gardening has taught me about money.
Money Lesson #1: Gardening Isn’t Easy
My dad has a green thumb. He’s great at gardening, and if you were to visit his home, you’d see a beautiful, lush garden right at the entrance.
It’s full of flowers and plants that he’s cultivated over the years.
If you get hungry, my dad can easily whip up an amazing salad from the veggies growing in his backyard: Carrots, tomatoes, cilantro, and lettuce.
There’s also fruits for dessert!
Growing up, I thought the ability to garden was hereditary. I assumed that I could just pick it up at a moment’s notice and that my gardens would be just like my dad’s.
Sadly, as I’ve come to realize, this is not the case.
Money lesson #1: Gardening takes time, effort and dedication.
Much like taking care of money would.
Money just doesn’t grow on trees, and taking care of it also takes time and effort.
Good money management requires coming up with a budget and watching your expenses. It requires having family meetings to come up with a direction for the family’s finances.
Proper management also requires you to learn and grow in your understanding of money and personal finance.
The good news is that all that effort is not in vain.
As I watch my garden grow, I reap the benefits of my hard work. Of all those humid evenings I spent out there watering each plant and adding fertilizer.
Personal finance is just like that.
It takes some toil, but after a while, you start to reap the benefits of growing your savings, and of having less debt, or no debt at all!
A Strong Foundation is Key
One of the plants in my garden was almost all wilted and dry. I kept watering it but that didn’t seem to be helping at all.
When I inspected it closely, I realized that the soil level seemed low compared to the plants around it, and that some of its roots were exposed.
Now, like I said, I’m no gardening guru, but common sense told me that this didn’t look right.
So I went to the Home Depot, grabbed a bag of soil and filled up the plant’s bottom with it.
I continued watering the plant a few times a week, and within a couple of weeks I started seeing a noticeable difference.
The leaves started coming back to life! They regained their green color and started to look vibrant and alive.
I could not believe such a drastic change could happen just by adding soil to the planter, but it did!
Money lesson #2:
When it comes to our finances, small changes can have a big impact over time as well.
Take for example a savings challenge.
Saving $10 a week seems pretty harmless and easy to do, but look at your savings over a full year and it adds up to over $500!
I personally like this savings challenge pack since it provides a variety of options to fit any budget!
Want to save lots of money?
Cutting back on expenses here and there can also add up to significant savings over time, so take a look at your spending habits, and identify areas of improvement.
If you’d like to learn how to create a budget that delivers actual results, be sure to download my free Quick Start Guide to Budgeting today.
Money Lesson #3: Weeds Creep Up Easily and Fast
Something that has surprised me about gardening is how fast weeds can grow!
At first, I didn’t even know what weeds looked like, until someone else pointed them out to me.
Ooopps!
I got some sprays to help control them, but I realized I had to keep up with it on a regular basis. Otherwise, the weeds would just come back.
Sometimes they grow in the same spot as before. Sometimes, they spring up in a new place entirely.
I have to watch out for them everywhere in my garden, and I have to be fast to attack them if I want to win the fight.
I also have to have a sharp eye, because weeds can be difficult to spot when they’re still small.
This got me thinking about finances.
Sometimes we don’t realize there’s “weeds” growing in them.
Money lesson #3:
There’s many weeds that can choke up our financial growth, and we need to be quick to act against them!
Perhaps it’s a friend that encourages you to spend money you don’t have. Maybe it’s the pressure to keep up with the Joneses.
For me, my weeds were a little overspending here and there.
It seemed insignificant at the moment, but then it became so massive that I couldn’t just fix it overnight.
What do you think are some weeds that are preventing your finances from growing? Share with us in the comments below!
Had I been more diligent and paid more attention to my finances, I could have prevented the problem from getting out of hand, which brings me to the next lesson.
Gardens Need Regular Attention
I recently went on vacation for several days. I watered all my plants before I left and figured they’d be ok.
However, I didn’t take into account that I live in Florida, where the sun is very unforgiving, and that there was no rain in the horizon for the entire time I was gone.
By the time I got back, some of the leaves of the plants that were more exposed to the sun were completely burned out.
Their soil looked caked up and the plants looked totally wilted. I didn’t realize how much damage could be done in less than a week!
Money lesson #4:
Our finances also require regular attention.
Budgets don’t work unless you execute them.
Savings don’t grow unless you make a conscious effort to set some money aside.
Regular attention is also a great way to catch any issues early on. I use Mint to stay on top of all my accounts at once, and I check it often.
It helps me identify when I’m close to my set budget in a particular category, and it helps me see all transactions in one place.
By checking the transaction history regularly, I was able to identify suspicious activity in one of my accounts within just a couple of hours, and avoid a bigger problem down the road.
Money Lesson #5: What Looks Dead Can Come Back to Life
Some of my plants have looked dead quite a few times.
When life gets busy and I don’t have as much time to care for them, some of the more delicate plants quickly start to look dry and lifeless.
However, one of the things gardening has taught me is that even when things don’t look so great, they can turn around for the better.
Going back to my plants – after a few days of regularly watering, feeding them and speaking to them, they always start to look alive again!
Did you know that plants respond positively when you speak to them?
Money lesson #5:
You can also speak life into your finances.
Talk about what you’d like your finances to look like as if they already did.
When you say negative things such as “I’m always gonna be in debt” or “I’m never gonna make enough money”, you’re making that your reality.
Instead, I encourage you to speak positivism into your situation. Set goals, put them in motion, and believe that you can achieve them!
There you have it guys!
I know I have a long way to go, but I’ve learned quite a few things about gardening in the past few months.
Gardening is quite a bit of work, but it can be really enjoyable – and surprisingly relaxing.
I didn’t think I’d learn anything about finances from it, but in this process I learned that life has a funny way to teach you what you need to know.
There’s lessons about relationships, personal finance, and life itself, everywhere actually, we just have to pay attention so we don’t miss them.
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