I built a vegetable garden for the first time. Here's what I learned (that also applies to my career).

About six months ago, I moved from an apartment that I had lived for five years to a house. I have never lived in a one-story house with a garage and a backyard before, so there were (still are) a lot of learning moments for me. Since I moved during winter, I wasn't very excited to work on my backyard until spring came and the rain stopped. That's when I decided to grow my own vegetables. Why not? All videos I watched made it seem so fun and easy. Well, here's what I learned in this process and how these learnings can be translated into other areas of my life, such as my career.

1. Don't underestimate the amount of work a project will take just because you know the steps required to complete it.

The big milestones won't take long to be completed, it's the sub-tasks required within each step that will.

When I decided to build a raised bed to grow vegetables, I did what most people do when tackling an unknown task: read some articles and watched videos. I thought I had what it took to build a garden myself, after all everyone on the internet that started their own vegetable garden was saying it was very easy. Boy, was I wrong. I knew the major steps would be to:

1. Measure the space
2. Get supplies to build the foundation
3. Build it
4. Fill it up with dirt
5. Put my plants in

Easy peasy, right? What I didn't think about was each small step that needed to be done within each milestone. Just to measure my space and define where I wanted my garden took me more than a week. The reason was because I have a tree in my backyard, small still, but it'll need space to grow. Should I go around the tree and make a U-shaped garden? Or two rectangle ones on each side of the tree? What about surrounding the tree with some sort of fence so I could optimize my garden space? Luckily I got help from my neighbor, a landscape designer, telling me to start small with one rectangle-shaped garden and then expand from there in the future. I could write a book with the other decisions I had to make for each step, but long story short, plan the steps ahead and ensure you document the sub-tasks needed and how long they will take (even if only in your head, but I prefer pen and paper).

2. Ensure you plan ahead which tools will be needed in which stages of the project.

And make sure they're available when you need them.

Once I finally had all the supplies needed, it was time to start working. Oh but wait, how was I going to cut the wood to the size needed? I don't have a saw or chainsaw, so what now? Well, in this stage, I also had help from my neighbors offering their tools. I decided to go with a manual saw as I was only cutting a few pieces of wood, and was terrified of cutting a finger or a limb with a chainsaw. Better to go back to basics and play it safe in this case. Then for one of the last steps, adding the dirt, it should have been pretty straightforward - dumping the soil inside the raised bed, right? Well, when you're talking about 2-3 bags of dirt, sure. But I had 20 bags, and some of them were organic compost and others regular soil. The idea was to mix them up manually to get a good quality soil for my vegetables. Once again, I was saved by the neighbor that lended me her rake to do this. Once the plants were in, then the last step would be to water them. But since some of them are still "baby" plants, their leaves are very delicate so hose watering could kill them. The neighbor couldn't save me on this one, so I ended up buying a simple AIY (assemble-it-yourself) irrigation system online. While I waited for it to arrive, I had to carefully hand water each plant to ensure I wasn't going to kill them.

3. Even if you can do a project by yourself, it doesn't mean you should.

Having other people's help and input can improve the outcome significantly.

To build my vegetable garden, I had help from my neighbors, my friends and my husband. They each helped in a different, and complementary ways, providing feedback on what could work best, recommending and even carrying the supplies needed (that was my husband, of course), and lending me the tools needed to complete the garden. Would I be able to do it without them? Probably. Would the outcome be as good? Most likely not. The project I had originally envisioned and the final one turned out to be very different due to everyone's input and my decisions to either apply them or not. Thanks to those inputs, I ended up with a raised bed that has a great size considering it's my first. It's easy to manage the plants and any pests (knock on wood they'll stay away), to water and to reach in to harvest.

4. Take breaks during the project and evaluate if any changes or adjustments are needed.

And most important of all, celebrate each small accomplishment.

For some of the tasks I mentioned, such as measuring and cutting the wood planks to have the right size, or attaching the metal corner pieces to hold the planks together, I thought I could do it in one go. Maybe I could, but I didn't. And I'm glad I had my husband as my partner on this project to tell me when to take a break and continue later. When the screws wouldn't go into the wood, or the screwdriver had a low battery, I thought I could push it a little bit more and get one more task done. But reality is, I was usually tired and frustrated at that point. So the best approach was to step aside, grab a snack and a drink, maybe go for a walk or lay down on the couch, and continue later or the next day. Once I understood that a little bit done every day was consistent progress, versus having peaks and valleys of progress because of tiredness and frustration, everything seemed easier and I was able to enjoy it. I started setting small daily goals, such as "measuring and cutting the wood planks for the base layer only", or "attaching 2 metal corners today". Doing so allowed me to actually accomplish those small goals and have multiple celebrations when they were achieved. Instead of running nonstop to the finish line and getting there exhausted and barely able to celebrate, I took it step-by-step and had many finish lines to celebrate.

Overall, this has been a great experience with some ups and downs, as with any career and projects. At the end of the day, it's all about learning with the "downs" and enjoying the "ups" to the best of your ability. A couple of other things I realized were to only plant what I like to eat and to monitor it daily for pests, plant health and if I need more dirt (I already know I will, so I'll need the neighbor's rake again).

Wish me luck with my first harvest, and thank you for reading!