How Should We Measure Success in a Garden?

Are you successful in your garden? This is a question that is not as easy to answer as you might think. I have been thinking lately about how we should measure success in a garden and why it is important to answer this question as a sustainable gardener.

Why Does Measuring Success Matter in a Garden?

You might wonder why we need to think about success in a garden at all. Why do we need to think about things in terms of successes or failures? Can't we just enjoy our gardens and our gardening without having to know how well we are doing?

Of course, gardening is not always about results. Often, we may simply enjoy growing a little of our own food or some pretty flowers without thinking too much about how well things are going.

But measuring success can be important because it can help us to understand our goals and how we are measuring up against those goals. It can help us to see more clearly what has worked and what has not in our gardens and to dictate our course moving forwards.

By measuring our success, we can see where we, as gardeners, are truly helping to make our world a better place and also where we may be falling short.

Measuring success can also help to encourage us—helping us to avoid that well-known slump when things do not always go according to plan. Seeing what we have done right and where we have succeeded can make sure we remain inspired and excited about what we are doing in our gardens.

Deciding What We Mean By Success

In order to measure success, we first need to determine what we mean by success. We need to ask ourselves what it means for something to go right and the metrics by which we can determine whether or not we are heading in the correct direction.

Success in a garden will mean different things to different people. We might think about success in terms of the appearance of a garden. We might look carefully, observe, and monitor how a garden looks when compared with original designs or plans.

We might measure progress towards meeting specific goals that we set earlier on in our gardening journey. For example, we might have determined to overcome a particular challenge in the environment in which we grow. Or we might have lofty goals like self-sufficiency when it comes to food.

The success of a garden might often be measured by taking a look at its yields (strictly tangible, or tangible and intangible). The yields that a garden can provide often focus on food. But of course there are numerous things a garden can provide.

Environmentalists can look at a number of metrics when trying to determine success in a garden. They might look, for example, at specific species, species numbers, or species diversity.

Biodiversity in a garden is often considered one key measure of success. So we might look at the diversity of both plant species and local wildlife within the space.

How to Measure Success

Often, to measure success in a garden, we need only look and learn, comparing what we have now to our permaculture designs or thinking about how they fit with the goals that we had earlier for the space.

To measure yields, at least tangible ones, we can easily weigh the produce that we grow. We can count the number of calories we grow. Or we can count specific fruits or vegetables to see how the harvest compares to the previous years.

Measuring success can sometimes be as simple as measuring yields and noting how the yields have increased with our decisions and efforts over time.

Measuring yields can be one simple way to see how well we have done. But it is important to remember that there are also intangible yields—ones that are not as easy to measure. How can we quantify the joy we experience from spending time in a beautiful and productive garden?

We can also count plant species and wildlife, but need to remember to look at the big picture to truly see how the garden ecosystem in functioning as a whole.

Counting and measuring is important, but we should also remember to look beyond the facts and figures to see what we have really achieved and all that the garden can truly do for us.