The Lovely, Lazy Garden: Embrace Imperfection.
Do garden tours give you garden angst? Do you compare grand, glorious, estate gardens to your perfectly pretty patch of flowers—and find your garden lacking? Do you flip through glossy garden design magazines—and feel overwhelmed by the slick perfection? Do you look with envy at your neighbor’s garden, watching as they spend hours every weekend creating a weed-free zone?
If you’re constantly comparing your garden to others, here’s our best advice:
Stop it…Please…Everyone’s garden is unique.
And every gardener’s time, budget, and ideals are different. The garden on the tour may be the result of endless dollars paid to landscapers to eliminate every weed. The glossy photos in the magazine are aspirational, not necessarily practical or realistic for most of us. Your neighbors may spend endless hours in the garden because they’re retired, or simply enjoy the therapeutic benefits of digging in the dirt.
But can we tell you a secret? No matter the size, age, or layout of your space—you can derive incredible joy from your garden. And if you allow yourself to embrace a less-than-perfect garden, you’ll find you enjoy it even more than if you’re constantly fretting over every fallen leaf, dandelion, or wildflower that pops up where you didn’t intend.
It’s time to embrace imperfection in your garden and elevate your garden joy.
How to Spend More Time Enjoying Your Garden.
No Mow May. Leave the Leaves. Less Lawn. No Lawn. Meadowscaping.
You’ve probably seen many online trends that promise to save you time while benefiting the environment. And while many of these trends do offer benefits, you’ll need to decide which ones are best for you and your garden. Some suggestions, like leaving seed heads in the fall garden to feed the birds, make sense. You not only save time by avoiding a fall clean-up, but you’ll enjoy watching goldfinches snack on coneflower seeds while you relax with a cocktail in the garden.
But other trends might need a little tweaking. For instance, let’s talk about those pesky fall leaves. Many pollinators use leaves to overwinter, emerging in the spring. However, voles also adore the shelter that fallen leaves provide, adding insulation to their tunnels during chilly winter days. So, if you’d like to avoid voles snacking on the roots of your plants, consider raking leaves away from the crown of your favorite perennials and shrubs, piling them in a space where the insects can enjoy the shelter—and foiling the voles’ plans to munch on your tender hosta roots.
But don’t try to rake all the leaves. Truly. Sit in the garden with a cup of hot tea and a good book, and enjoy the pretty colors of autumn instead. You’re guaranteed to feel much happier than conquering every… single… leaf!
While about 70 percent of native bees nest in the ground, other pollinators nest in flower stems.
From egg to larva to adult emerging in the spring, the entire life cycle of a yellow-faced bee, for instance, takes place in a stem. Snip flowers but leave the stems, providing shelter for cavity-dwelling bees. Likewise, leave the leaves, as many native pollinators use leaves and brush piles as habitats.
Finding Joy in Spring’s Untamed Flowers
And, as spring emerges, celebrate the warmer weather by embracing dandelions. And violets. And all the pretty wildflowers that pop up in your lawn, flower beds, and containers—wherever they were not intentionally planted. What a gift! Darling little surprises, blooming where you least expect them—and they’re such a treat for pollinators, who need these early blooms for food as they emerge after a long, cold winter.
Consider these flowering cuties a joyful scavenger hunt and embrace their benefits to wildlife. You’ll love watching the first butterflies and bees flit from bloom to bloom as you relax in your garden. While your neighbor spends hours spraying poison on the newly emerging “weeds,” gently remind them of the benefits that these beauties provide.
Honestly, joyful gardening involves a change in mindset. Rather than focus on all the work and tasks and imperfections of your garden, instead look for glimmers of joy. The first daffodil popping through the soil in January. The chrysalis hanging like a jewel from your balcony railing.
The dew-covered spiderweb glistening in the morning sun. Instead of removing the web, marvel at its perfection—and the organic pest control that its creator provides.
Even dead trees create joy in the garden. Unless your home is in danger, leave dead trees standing. More than 80 species of birds rely on dead trees—called snags—for nesting, storing food, hunting, roosting, and resting. Standing tree trunks provide homes for many cavity-nesting species, including woodpeckers, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, bluebirds, tree swallows, great crested flycatchers, wood ducks, and American kestrels.
Instead of removing dead trees—a time-consuming and often expensive ordeal–let wildlife move into the snags and enjoy watching the show.
A slightly messy, less-than-pristine garden means a space filled with color and life—from birds, butterflies, and insects—as well as gorgeous blooms, lovely textures, and tasty treats.
Give yourself the gift of grace. Plants die. Pests happen.
Gardening is a journey, not a destination, and part of gardening joy is embracing mindfulness as you grow what you love. Perfection isn’t necessary. Joy is.
5 Ways to Create More Garden Joy
What sparks joy for you in the garden? Do you anxiously await the first sun-warmed, delicious homegrown tomato? Do you adore growing flowers to fill vases? Do you want to invite wildlife into your garden for backyard birding?
Everyone gardens for unique reasons, and the process should bring you joy. If you’re new to gardening—or even if you’ve been gardening for years but need a burst of joy, take a peek at these simple, easy-to-apply recommendations to help you create a more joyful gardening life.
1. Grow Something Winter-Blooming
During bleak, chilly winter days when you wonder if you’ll ever feel warm again, you need the salvation of flowers—particularly flowers blooming in your garden. If you live in southern zones, lucky you: you’ll find an amazing array of winter-blooming plants, including winter daphne, camellias, hellebores, and more.
But even in the coldest USDA hardiness zones, you’ll delight at the first daffodil blooms that peek from the frozen beds of your winter garden. No matter where you garden, daffodils provide extraordinary joy during cold winter days. They’re vole-proof, deer-proof, and bloom for years. And, with a little planning, you can enjoy weeks of beautiful bouquets when you plant early, mid, and late-blooming varieties of daffodils, brightening your landscape and your vases. There’s nothing nicer than a vase filled with cheerful daffodils in February.
A few daffodil varieties to consider for an extended bloom season include:
- Early Bloomer: Rijnveld’s Early Sensation
An heirloom from 1943, this award-winning early bloomer produces a 3-inch, golden-yellow flower with a star-shaped perianth and a funnel-shaped cup with an expanded, flanged and wavy mouth. The earliest of the Trumpets to bloom, it stands up to surprise snowfalls.
- Mid Bloomer: Avalanche
An heirloom known as ‘Seventeen Sisters’ because of its 15 to 20 sweetly fragrant flowers per stem. The white-petaled flowers with a demitasse-shaped cup were commonly found in many colonial gardens.
- Late Bloomer: Poeticus Recurvus
Also known as Pheasant’s Eye, the graceful, reflexed white petals sport a yellow cup ringed with red. Produces a spicy fragrance.
When daffodils finish blooming, do not tidy them!
Leave the greenery, which helps absorb energy to feed the bulbs, promoting beautiful blooms again next year. Once the leaves have turned brown, you can gently pull them off or snip them if you desire—but it’s not necessary.
2. Grow Something Delicious
There’s nothing more motivating than pampering plants that produce edible delicacies. From the first sweet strawberry to the star of a BLT, growing food not only tastes delicious—it instills an amazing amount of pride when you create tasty treats from your garden. But you don’t have to fill your entire backyard with a full-blown farm to relish the joy of growing your own food. Plant a tomato in a large container on your patio. Add several strawberry plants to hanging baskets near a sunny deck. Grow basil in a window box. Growing food should be joyful, not overwhelming and exhausting. And in today’s economy, growing food makes good sense for your bank account. Plus, homegrown really, truly does taste better.
If you fear that battling pests and diseases will take the joy out of growing food, many new edible varieties boast disease- and pest-resistance, making your life easier.
A few new delicious edible varieties to try include:
- Basil Piedmont
You’ll enjoy a season filled with delicious flavor when you grow this remarkably disease-resistant new basil. Its exceptional Downy Mildew Resistance (DMR) means healthier plants and weeks of extra harvests, compared to other basil varieties. This vigorous basil forms dense, bushy plants with a strong aroma and classic basil flavor. Even in challenging conditions, this basil thrives, offering a long harvest season. All-America Selections Winner.
- Tomato Burpee Garden Sown™ Groundswell Hybrid
The first-ever garden-sown tomato that saves you time and avoids transplant shock. This new large slicer ripens as early as all other beefsteak varieties on healthy, high-yielding plants. Look forward to a long season of big, broad-shouldered fruits suffused with heirloom fragrance and flavor, perfect for sandwiches, burgers, or salads.
- Tomato Honey Bee
An early, improved Artisan type tomato with excellent flavor. Beautiful red- and yellow-striped fruit looks lovely and tastes delicious. Compact plant habit, high yields, and less cracking than others of its type. Resistant to Late Blight, Fusarium Wilt races 1–2, Gray Leaf Spot, and Verticillium Wilt.
3. Grow Something Fragrant
Is there anything more invigorating than walking past the sweet, sweet scent of jasmine? Does the gardenia shrub by your front porch conjure happy memories of your grandmother’s garden? Did the lovely fragrance of lilacs linger in your childhood kitchen? Fragrant plants offer more than just a pleasant scent in the garden. Our sense of smell is tied closely to our memories, and by adding fragrant plants to your garden, you’re not only recreating happy memories—you’re creating new memories for your garden visitors.
Pick your favorite fragrant plant and place it where you can enjoy its delicious scent: near a pathway, in a container by the patio seating area, or a pot on your apartment balcony. Then, when the world feels weary, dip your head toward your favorite flower—and inhale.
There. Don’t you feel better?
A few new varieties to plant for fragrance include:
- Gardenia Big Beauty™
A gorgeous landscape shrub with delicious fragrance and lovely double blooms, this shrub is covered in masses of white flowers in summer. The large shrub’s fragrance spreads through the landscape. A low-maintenance plant, it remains naturally round, making it an ideal choice for hedging or foundation plantings. No spraying needed for diseases or insects.
- Lavender LAYLA™ Presto Blue
Fabulous fragrance and lovely, large flowers not only invite pollinators to your garden—but Layla makes a great addition to your cocktails, meals, and desserts, too. The well-branched, compact, upright lavender blooms from summer to fall. Add it to a container on a sunny balcony or plant it in your kitchen garden.
- Rose Eau De Parfum™ Blush
Big, delightfully fragrant blooms provide the classic romance of roses with the added benefit of disease resistance. Blush-pink blooms form a lovely bud, then slowly unfurl to its full glory. The lush foliage makes these excellent shrubs in the garden. Blooming repeatedly from early spring until first frost, you’ll enjoy plenty of roses to fill your vases with bouquets.
4. Grow Something for Pollinators
Hummingbirds zipping from flower to flower, hovering to sip nectar from blooms. Butterflies flitting from plant to plant, searching for host plants to lay their eggs. Bees buzzing lazily by, their legs heavy with pollen. Growing a garden gives you the perfect up-close view of nature at work and play. Whether you’re enticing pollinators to help boost the harvest of your veggie garden or just enjoy watching the little creatures savor the plants in your landscape, planting for pollinators offers many benefits: practical pollinating of fruits and veggies; the pleasure of watching wildlife in your back—or front—yard; and the joy of providing food and shelter to continue the pollinators’ life cycles. After all, monarchs are not the only pollinators that need our help.
A few easy-to-grow plants to attract pollinators to your garden include:
- Milkweed Cinderella Swamp
Vanilla-scented flowers are a treat for the senses. Deep-pink petals with white centers bloom in 2-inch-wide clusters. Compact in form, ‘Cinderella’ makes an excellent choice for small, sunny gardens and performs well in low spots and moist areas. Like all swamp milkweeds, ‘Cinderella’ is a vital host plant for monarchs, providing essential food and habitat for both the growing caterpillars and adult butterflies.
- Cosmos Sea Shells Red
A charming and unique flower known for its distinctive, tubular petals that resemble seashells. The plants produce flowers in a beautiful palette of soft pinks and whites, adding a romantic flair to flower beds and arrangements. The flowers also make excellent cut flowers, offering a long vase life of 7 to 10 days, which means you can enjoy their beauty indoors as well. 2025 Professional’s Choice Green Thumb Award Winner.
- Lantana Firefrost™
The fiery red and yellow blooms of Firefrost™ Lantana capture attention in the garden, luring hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. This perennial variety is exceptionally cold hardy to Zone 7, showing root hardiness to 0°F. A naturally spreading variety, it grows about 18 inches tall and 36 inches wide. Evergreen in frost-free areas.
5. Grow Something to Share
Gardeners are notoriously generous. From seeds to cuttings to divisions to zucchini, gardeners love to share. And as a recipient, it’s a delight to look at your garden beds or containers, remembering the friends who gave you the lovely edgeworthia cutting that fills the winter garden with fragrance, or the dinnerplate dahlia tubers that add beauty to your beds.
New gardeners often receive garden gifts more than they’re able to reciprocate. But that’s OK—experienced gardeners delight in helping fill a new gardener’s beds with beauty.
If you’d like to return the favor, here are a few perennials to consider planting that will multiply beautifully for you to share in a few years:
- Iris Classic Cool
Not at all standoffish, Classic Cool Bearded Iris features icy white standards that add sophistication to any garden party. Muted falls and bright orange beards add just a hint of intrigue. A fashionably late bloomer into early summer. Deer and rabbit-resistant, drought-tolerant.
- Hosta Miss America
A majestic, variegated, large hosta that will capture the hearts of any gardener who showcases it in their garden. Medium green, heart-shaped leaves sport white centers and light green intermediate streaking between the center and margin. Near white, tubular flowers produce a lavender pattern in the center of the petals.
- Rudbeckia American Gold Rush
This AAS Winner produces bright, golden-yellow flowers with black centers and arched petals, making a gorgeous addition to any garden. Blooming from July to September, with some color up until frost, this compact stunner is incredibly easy to grow. Pollinators love it.
Are you ready to relax your perfectionistic standards and embrace a joyful garden?
To help you enjoy your garden and forget about your to-do list, savor this refreshing cocktail while you embrace the beauty of your less-than-perfect garden.
Peach Sangria
Ingredients
- 1 bottle white wine (a pinot grigio, chenin blanc, or similar)
- 1 cup Grand Marnier
- 3-4 peaches, sliced
- 1 lemon or lime, sliced
- Handful of mint and/or basil
- Handful of ice
Instructions
- Stir all ingredients together. Chill until ready to serve.
About National Garden Bureau
Founded more than 100 years ago, the National Garden Bureau educates, inspires, and motivates people to grow home gardens. National Garden Bureau members are horticultural experts, and the information shared with you comes directly from these experts to ensure your gardening success.
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5 Comments. Leave new
Who ever wrote the article about enjoying one’s less than perfect garden must know me and have written this article for me during this difficult time in a gardener’s growingvseason. Basiclly all of the plants are in the ground and growing as are the weeds but the weather is too hot anf humid so weeding is difficult. I appreciate the author’s advice. I will try to sit back and enjoy the ride. I walked my garden with a camera last week and take atleast one photo of each plant that was flowering but did not accomplish that task. There were too many flowers and mosquitoes. Just that simple few minute walk gave he alot of satisfaction but I still need to accept the weed and dead flower stalks.
Yes, John, enjoy the garden don’t stress about it. Remember, gardening is a journey, not a destination, and part of gardening joy is embracing mindfulness as you grow what you love. Perfection isn’t necessary. Joy is.
I no longer gardening and my large area is overrun with weeds. After weeding what would create an easy maintenance space? My zip code 98058
Weeds do love to come in quickly, don’t they. Our suggestion might be to design with grasses and sedges – https://ngb.org/new-perennial-movement/. I would connect with your local garden retailer or extension office for their suggestions for your area.
What a delightful article to both look at and to read. I love all your recommendations about how to make gardening a joyful, less stressful experience as well as a home to bees and butterflies and birds. Thank you so much.