How I Went Crazy About Gardening

Gardening became one of my big spending categories when we first bought our house. It turned into a bit of an obsession for awhile! You could easily say I went a bit crazy about gardening.

Gardening was a big part of my childhood

Growing up gardening was something I did with my mum and grandma.

When I was about 6, my parents bought a big house on a big section. There was apple trees and plum trees, raspberry bush and other Finnish berry bushes (similar to currants I think). During summers mum would often grow sugar snap peas, strawberries and potatoes.

My grandparents on the other hand have even more land and always kept a really big garden with potatoes, onions, spring onion, carrots, lettuce and so forth. They also had heaps of Finnish berry bushes.

My great-grandparents lived next door as well and they had a huge strawberry field (easily about 800 square meters) and a lot of berry bushes.

The surrounding woods were also full of wild blueberries that we would pick. (The Finnish blueberries grow in small little plants, not much taller than halfway of an adult’s shin.)

My childhood is full of memories of being in the garden and picking berries or fruit. They were such wholesome and happy memories I definitely wanted gardening to be part of my life, and my children’s lives as well.

Moving into our own house made the dream possible

So, when we moved to our own house I was determined to set up my first garden!

(By the way, you can find our house buying journey here, and more about our house here.)

There was no existing garden so I had a pretty clean slate. As a birthday present my partner built me some planter boxes and I also dug out a few spots for garden beds.

In the end I planted strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, corn, sugar snap peas, pumpkin, watermelon, lettuce, rhubarb, courgette, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, spring onion, potatoes, basil, thyme and few different types of flowers.

So yes, I went a bit nuts.

Crazy about gardening, or just spending money like crazy?

Here’s the thing about me and money.

I have no trouble saving and not spending on unnecessary things in general. But I can get obsessive. It’s a good thing when I’m obsessed about a savings goal.

But with hobbies and interests, my spending can get out of hand. I tend to want to buy everything straightaway and spare no expenses.

This means making silly decisions sometimes, like insisting on buying “the best” branded things when really not necessary. I can also be a bit brand loyal, even if it means paying extra.

I really should have properly tracked what I spent on setting up the garden, but I didn’t because I felt like I was going to spend too much (which was true) and I didn’t want to know the end figure.

Now I’m regretting that decision! But I’d say the figure is between $600-$800.

I bought so, so many bags of soil (one time I had 10×40 litre bags in my car boot), buckets for planting, fertilisers, not to mention all the plants, both seedlings and seeds.

For example, my two blueberry bushes were $50 each!

While I’m very happy with the end result, I’m sure I could’ve gotten away with spending less.

But it’s more than just about the money

I was talking to one of my bosses about gardening and he was a bit surprised I was also growing “cheap” crops.

Apparently he doesn’t really see the point in growing something that is already cheap to buy from the supermarket.

I was a bit stunned by this view as I hadn’t thought of gardening in that way.

To me, gardening is so much more than saving money on our grocery bill. It is about doing something with my own hands, watching something grow, share it with my daughters and having a hobby that is for me.

Learning something new like about plant growth is good for my brain too, I was constantly referring to the Tui Garden and Home website for information.

It’s okay to be crazy about gardening, or anything really

My point with this blog post is that while I’m all for saving, investing and curbing unnecessary spending, I think it’s also important to spend money on things that bring you joy and happiness.

That’s what my garden does to me. And even though I still need to learn to manage my binge spending when it comes to my interests, I don’t really regret my overspending.

I want to enjoy my hobbies, but at the same time I don’t want them to jeopardise my other financial goals.

My summer crops are done and dusted now. There was some success and some failures, and definitely things learnt!

I’d like to think I have time for some winter planting but it might not make it high enough on my priority list as life is a bit hectic right now.

Either way, come next time I’m setting up the garden, I will aim to be a bit more mindful with my spending! And definitely track the spending.

Do you have a hobby that you spare no expenses with? I’d love to hear in the comments!