The winter months are such a lovely time to plan and organize your garden for the year. As gardeners, this slow time gives us the opportunity to review last year’s garden, to plan for upcoming projects, and to decide what flowers, herbs, and vegetables we’ll grow this year.

One thing that often gets overlooked when planning is the overwhelm that comes in the middle of the growing season. We get so excited about spring and summer that we often create too much work for ourselves. We plan too many large projects. Or we plant too many seeds and end up with a mountain of transplants.

Then, when everything is ready for harvest, we’re bombarded with too much produce, too many flowers to deadhead, and an overabundance of weeds that need to be pulled. All at the same time. Often in the middle of our garden season, we’re too tired to truly enjoy our gardens.

I’m on a mission this year to slow down, to plant strategically, and to create a system that will encourage more time for joy in my garden. I want more time to listen to the birds and watch the pollinators. More time to pick a bouquet to share. And more opportunities to be grateful instead of overwhelmed.

How about you? Would you like to bring more joy into your garden this year? Keep reading to get some ideas on how to do that. You might not implement all seven of these ideas, but even following a couple of them can open the door to more joy and less overwhelm.

7 Ways to Bring Joy Back Into Your Garden…

#1 What’s Your Garden Why?

Have you ever considered why you garden? Is your reason simply utilitarian? You want food for your meals, or you hope for a few flowers to pick. Or do you garden because you love being outdoors? Are you gardening for the beauty it brings to your life? Maybe you garden for the exercise.

I imagine you garden for all these reasons and more. Understanding why you garden can help you decide if it’s time to let go of things you don’t enjoy or that no longer serve you. Here’s an example from my garden. Each year I grow piles of tomatoes. I grow tomatoes to make sauce. And I grow them to make salsa. I usually have plenty to preserve and freeze as well.

But something has shifted in our home. My husband is not eating fresh tomatoes as much. And since the kids are grown and gone, we don’t eat as much spaghetti and pizza. That means we don’t need as many tomatoes as in the past. So maybe it’s time to cut back on how many tomato plants I grow.

By understanding why we grow what we do in the garden, we can simplify and make better choices.

#2 Let Go of Garden Perfection

I’m a sucker for pictures of beautiful gardens. My bookshelves are filled with books that attest to the allure of a beautiful garden space. And it’s so easy to get lost on Pinterest when getting ideas for the garden.

Garden photos can be such an inspiration to us. A well-tended garden seems almost magical. But let’s be honest. It’s impossible to keep your garden in a perfect state. The wind blows leaves and branches to the ground. Animals dig in our beds. Tools and supplies pile up when we’re in a hurry. And weeds pop up faster than anything else we grow.

It’s easy to get discouraged when we think everyone else’s garden is in tip-top shape while ours looks like a tornado went through it. But what you don’t see in those images is what’s just outside of the frame. And they don’t tell you how many people worked to get the space perfect before they snapped the picture. Or how that garden space looks on a “normal” day.

Our gardens are in constant flux. They change with the seasons. And they change when we decide on creating new garden spaces. Pets, kids, and wildlife all take their toll on our gardens as well.

Strive to make your garden spaces pleasant to be in, regardless of whether they’re perfect. Enjoy your garden for what it is right now. You can certainly work on improving it. Rake up the leaves, fill in the holes, clean up that pile, and pull the weeds. But don’t rob yourself of the joy of your garden because it doesn’t look like the latest Better Homes and Gardens images.

#3 Create Daily Rituals

Creating daily rituals in the garden can bring you so much joy. For example, you could drink your first cup of coffee sitting in the garden each morning. Take the time to feel the sun warming your skin. Listen to the mourning doves cooing. Quietly meditate on a scripture while the garden is waking up.

Maybe a daily garden walk is just the thing you need to inspire you for the day. Enjoy the aroma of your herbs as you brush against them. Watch the bees as they move from flower to flower, seeking nectar. Anticipate the new flowers to come or the produce that’s growing.

Another daily garden ritual might be to water your flower pots each evening as the day is winding down. Filling the watering can to give your flowers a drink can calm and relax you.

Or maybe you end the day sharing it with a family member while swinging on your back patio. Enjoy the sunset while you take in the last moments of the garden.

You get to choose your garden rituals. Pick one or two each day. When you make these rituals part of your daily routine, they will be something you look forward to each day. That daily ritual can bring you contentment and joy.

#4 Simplify Your Garden Tasks

Use this winter planning time to think about what you usually do in your garden each day, each week, and each month. Are there any tasks you can simplify to make gardening easier?

There are so many things we can do to ease the overwhelm in our gardens. Here are a few ideas to help simplify your gardening tasks:

1. Place all your containers in one area to simplify hand-watering. Or set up your flowerpots on a drip irrigation system.
2. Each day, do one type of task. For example, Monday is the day for weeding. Tuesday is the day to deadhead your flowers, etc.
3. Another way to minimize your efforts is to work on just one area each day. So one day you work in your herb bed. The next day you work in the vegetable patch. On the third day, you deal with the cutting garden and so forth.
4. Grow fewer annual flowers that need to be dead-headed regularly. Instead, focus on easy-to-grow perennials that need less dead-heading. Or choose self-cleaning annuals that don’t need to be dead-headed.
5. Carry your tools with you. This will save you multiple trips looking for your tools. You can carry them in a basket, bucket, or garden apron.

Read: Your Garden in Review

#5 Eliminate Chores

When you look at your garden as a “chore” and not a pleasure, then it’s time to give something up. Keep the things that bring you the most joy and let go of those tasks that you don’t get pleasure from.

What can you eliminate this year to reduce your garden overwhelm and bring back the joy? Make a list of all the regular tasks you do in your garden. What tasks do you struggle with? Could you eliminate them or find an alternative way of doing them? These should be tasks you don’t like to do or that are difficult for you.

For example, purchase your plants this year instead of growing them from seed. Hire a neighborhood teenager to mow your lawn each week. Maybe this is the year that you don’t grow any vegetables. Instead, you plan to purchase produce at your local farmer’s market.

Obviously, you’re not going to eliminate everything. Just look for the top 2 or 3 things you could let go of to make your gardening time more pleasant.

#6 Say No to More

When you love to garden, it’s easy to add more… more plants, more garden beds, more flowers. But at some point, we just need to say no. No to more.

As I plan for the year’s garden, I like to select the plants I want to grow. Then I pull the seeds out and organize them. Recently, I looked at my pile of over 50 seed packets for just the vegetables and I thought, “What are you doing?” I can’t possibly plant all these vegetables in the garden and have success without spending hours growing them.

So I said no to more and began removing seed packets from the pile. I don’t need six types of tomatoes. One or two types of tomatoes are all I truly need since I’m cutting back on tomatoes this year. I’m still growing them, just fewer options and fewer plants.

This is what I mean by saying no to more. Let go of some of the excess that your gardener’s brain says would be great. In winter, everything sounds like a good idea. But by spring, reality sets in.

#7 Open Your Garden Gate to Friends

How many times have you thought, “Wouldn’t it be lovely to have some friends over to enjoy the garden?” But then you don’t do it because the cutting garden’s a mess and the dog dug holes in the grass. Of course, we think the garden needs to be perfect to enjoy with friends and family. Or maybe you think, “I don’t have time to make food or bake a treat for company.”

Time spent with friends doesn’t need to be stressful. A cup of coffee or tea, and some quiet moments enjoying each other’s company are all you really need. If you really need food, set out a simple plate of fruit or buy some fancy cookies.

This year, make time in your schedule to relax and enjoy your precious friends. They will be thrilled to come for a visit to your garden, and it will bring you joy to share it.

Your garden should bring you a sense of peace and joy. If each day of the garden season is filled with stress, then something needs to change. Now is the time to make these decisions before you’re smack in the middle of another busy garden season.

Choose what you can do less of or what you want to do more of, bringing you a greater sense of joy this year. Your garden should bring contentment, not constant overwhelm. So consider implementing these seven ideas to bring joy back into your garden and life this year!