Gardening requires plenty of patience.

Season gardeners would tell you being patient is one of the hardest gardening lessons to learn and master.

Some seeds take weeks to sprout.

Take strawberries, for example. It is often four weeks before an excited gardener sees the first sprout and another few weeks for the seedlings to reach the size of your fingertip. Those seedlings will take another year to reach maturity and bear fruit. Such a seemingly prolonged process in an age when all types of fruit are available throughout the year on supermarket shelves (at least in the Netherlands, where I live).

In the world of trees, strawberries are nowhere near the top of the patience-requiring league. The common apple tree, for example, takes a few years to establish and start giving a decent crop. That is if you provide adequate care and if the weather is kind.

Below are photos of the same apple tree, several years apart.

We bought our first house in October 2019. When autumn had set in, I found myself having a garden for the first time. The weather was so spirit-dampening that I didn’t go out much—not to gather fallen leaves for composting, or to dig holes for spring bulbs.

I stayed inside, and I waited.

In the beginning, it was easy to just wait patiently.

We were busy with the new house and the holidays. Also, nothing seemed to grow for months on end.

When spring came, I started to get the itch. I wanted to turn up the soil and throw down some seeds. The curiosity about mysterious plants awaiting me beneath spring soil held me back.

As March continued ticking by, I decided to sow seeds in containers yet one more year while starting an inventory of the garden I inherited.

Each time a flower emerged, I checked its name using a plant-identifying app. I also noted its colour, timing, and usefulness to bees and humans. Throughout the growing season, I decide whether to keep the plant in the ground, move it into a pot, or even put it in the compost bin in the coming winter.

Sometimes, though, I got impatient.

Unrecognisable shaggy branches called out at me and my secateurs. I had to remind myself of the wise words of seasoned gardeners: “You should wait for a year before making any changes in a new garden.”

So I put away the secateurs and continued to wait.

Lockdown came. Then lockdown was relaxed.

Summer is almost in full swing, and still, I am waiting.

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If you feel impatient, remember that good things come for those who wait.

Yet, there are shortcuts safe to take as many have tested them before you and I. Like this cheat sheet of 12 Tested Gardening Ideas for Small Spaces. It can help fast-track your success in the garden and lessen the wait here and there.

Provide your info for a link to the downloadable resource and be opted into our email list for the (very) occasional product promotion.