If gardening were a one season project, where you had to begin and finish in one season, I would have the worst garden! Like a cook that starts and ends a recipe for dinner, it takes a lot of development to get to the point of being a good cook or a good baker, but they can have a small window eventually to succeed or not. There's no 'next meal'. lol They are either a success on the whole, meal by meal, or they're not.
Gardening is pretty unique as an activity. although I'm sure that can be said of many activities. Much harder than it looks or it seems. And you can do many things right in any season, but things are out of your control, to a degree too because of the weather or the bugs or the critters, so you have to develop ways to take the possibilities for problems into account every season and develop ways of dealing with them. At the same time, it is easier than it seems too. Plants just grow. lol Yet you get to do your part to help them along.
I think gardening is very challenging. And to end up with a result that you are happy with takes multiple seasons and a lot of time and energy. And now it takes money as well. If we could start and finish in one season, we'd probably get bored with it fast. And the idea that there is always 'next season' is often about hoping you have more of what you didn't have this year. More time, more energy, better weather, less damage from critters and bugs. It can be like starting over, a second chance, but mostly, it's a continuation. It actually seems difficult to define gardening, now that I try it. [g]
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Actual coronet dianthus post on thread
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