How does your garden grow?

As an avid gardener, I find my time "playing" in the dirt to be my therapy. No outside noise and the ones in mind head usually go to the lowest common denominator, like the last, worst song I have heard. It's a good thing that I don't live very close to my neighbors, because I am pretty sure that someone would have called the white coats, for the nutty lady who talks and sings to herself, and or her plants. When I talk out loud it is often to my Granddad who gave me the love of growing. I wish he could answer my damn questions!
What I have learned over the years is how little I know. I make mistakes every single year and each one makes me a better gardener. I know how to plant the fastest growing tomatoes in the area. I have learned that my neighbors horses can be my gardens best friend. I have learned that it is cheaper to buy your own annuals than to try to be a superstar and grow them by seeds and spend half a paychecks electricity, water and hair dye (when I go gray). Yes, I have learned, but one of my biggest lessons has been that you can't just dig a hole in the ground, throw a plant in there and expect much.
Then one day I realized that life's lessons can be learned in the garden. You can't succeed in school if you just show up. You have to get your hands dirty, open a book, study, read, absorb.
If you want the best career, you don't do that by being stagnant and uninspired. Many people start relationships by thinking that they can just dig a hole, sit in it and expect it to flourish.
With all of these things, it's first about the intention. If you don't know what you want to grow, how will you know what to plant? Once that is decided, you must make the proper preparations, the right ingredients and optimal "growing" conditions.
Then you carefully plant your ideas, hopes and dreams, because doing so quickly could ruin all of the prep work.
Now the work has been done, many will just go inside their comfortable homes and wait for something to happen. But, there are those that stay outside, brave the rain, the drought, the harsh sun, the floods, and the insects. And, let's not forget those "pests" that show up after you have done all this work, sneak in when you aren't looking and run off with your hard work.
But those that hang in there are the ones that produce the bountiful harvest.
Put your efforts into anything that you really care about and want to be successful, no one else can do it for you, and ignorance is death to growth. And don't forget that the easy thing (running to the store and buying a plant someone else has grown) may be quick, have instant gratification but not nearly the same sense of satisfaction.

Life and or gardening is not easy, but as your parents and grandparents told you, nothing worthwhile ever is!