Popular Mechanics

If you like watching baseball, road races and old movies when the weather is good, then gardening may not be for you.

There's no question that it's time-consuming, frequently tedious, occasionally rigorous and all too often frustrating. And if you are looking for vegetables that are cheaper than what you can buy or flowers that are as flawless as your florist delivers, then maybe it's a good idea to stay on the couch -- where the livin' is easy and the remote is close at hand.

Not only is gardening more physically demanding than many of us would like, it also requires more patience and diplomacy than most of us want in our avocational pursuits. Unless you feel comfortable with a limited nuclear strike, the blights and pests that can invade your own patch of paradise can quickly usher you past distraction and into that special world occupied only by the screams of a newborn.

It doesn't sound like much fun, does it? But it is, because gardening has so many compensating pleasures.

The first, plainly put, is that it's worthwhile. What better way to spend some spare time than growing good food for your family or landscaping around your home to reflect the expanse of your imagination instead of the limits of conformity?

Second, gardening is not a passive activity; there's no "virtual" anything about it. You can't dream the slugs away with a joystick and no microchip can force you to turn over the compost pile when your back is aching and your shoulder is stiff. You turn it over because you want to turn it over, in spite of everything else.

Third, gardening can be a compelling cooperative activity. Your best harvest may be the pleasure you get from working with family and friends. There's never a shortage of things to do, no limit to the lessons that can be learned -- especially for children -- and there's always plenty of credit to go around, even for the mistakes.

But it can also be, and very often is, a more solitary calling. And as such, it's one of the purest antidotes to the demands of our busy, supposedly post-industrial lives. The folks at work may reward you best for being a card-carrying team player and the folks at home may love you the most when you are completely occupied with them, body and soul.

But somewhere there really should be something just for you, on your own terms. Maybe it is on the couch. But maybe it's out there, too, coming to terms with all sorts of living things that were so much a part of people's lives not that long ago. You won't need any meetings. No power posturing is required. And the commute is a breeze -- just walk out the back door.