The Most Laidback Thing I’ve Ever Done

I’ve just committed the ultimate laidback act: I’ve hired someone to look after my plants. It feels rather strange to say that, given that I’m such a gardening fanatic. And even more so, as I’m constantly encouraging my readers to cut down on the work they do in their gardens. But my situation is, I think, rather unique.

Laidback in the garden not in life

First, let me point out that I’m a laidback gardener, not a lazy person. My “normal” workday starts around 5:00 a.m. and often stretches well into the evening—seven days a week, more often than not. Of course, I take breaks, but let’s just say it doesn’t leave me much time to look after my own plants.

In fact, the whole idea behind the Laidback Gardener came from my search for ways to keep a beautiful garden while spending no more than two hours a week maintaining it. It wasn’t all that difficult: less fertilizer (so plants grow more slowly), more mulch (to eliminate most watering and weeding), and plants that simply aren’t bothered by insects or diseases. In other words, plants that can more or less take care of themselves—that’s the foundation of laidback gardening. And it works! Most of my flower beds receive less than an hour of maintenance per year, and my lawn (yes, I still have one) now takes just 20 minutes a week to mow instead of the two and a half hours it once required.

Testing the market

The catch is that, you see, as a horticultural journalist worthy of the name, I have to try out everything on the market.

After all, how could I write about a plant if I’ve never grown it myself? Yet there are tens of thousands of plants on the market in Quebec. And, as I have to look beyond local nurseries to discover plants before they appear on the local market, I need to know thousands of plants like the back of my hand. So, every year, I plant hundreds of new varieties at home: annuals, perennials, shrubs, vegetables, and so on.

And that’s where, I must admit, I started to lose track: very often, I remember ordering a plant, but I can’t remember what became of it or where I planted it.

With the best of intentions…

When I started planting everything I could get my hands on at the market, I had the best of intentions. All the plants were to be recorded on the computer as they arrived and, as they grew, I was going to log everything in a database. And I was going to pass on the information I’d gathered to you. Except that I never had enough time to get round to it. Time to plant, yes (I don’t mess about with a spade – I can assure you of that!), but afterwards…

How many times did I have to rack my brains trying to work out what had become of a particular plant, only to find it, in full bloom, right outside my office window! I had to face facts: it no longer made any sense; I needed help!

The ultimate laidback act

Well, I’ve recently taken on a gardener. Her job is to look after the many plants around my house properly and keep a record of everything on the computer, and so on. It’s not that I’ll never touch the plants again, but at least I’ll have some help keeping an eye on them. So, here I am having committed the ultimate laidback act for a gardener: someone else is doing the gardening for me!

But now I’m faced with a new problem: what to do with all the free time this saves me – at least 10 or 12 hours every summer? I’ve had a mad idea: what if I started tending a proper vegetable patch again? What can I say, once a gardener, always a gardener, laidback or not!

Larry Hodgson has published thousands of articles and 65 books over the course of his career, in both French and English. His son, Mathieu, has made it his mission to make his father’s writings accessible to the public. This text was originally published in Fleurs, plantes, jardins in August 2013.