A garden is much more than just creating a beautiful environment. It can be a way to save or even make money and, more than that, it can be a place where you can express yourself. For me, it's a bit of all these things. I know it may sound strange for a 13-year. old girl to be interested in gardening, but I have always been and I would love to make a career （职业） out of it.
I have learned many things these past few years. I have been reading about and doing some gardening. So, here is my top advice about gardening. First, you do not need to spend a lot of money to have a beautiful garden. Some of the gardens that I think are the prettiest are just lines of plants. There aren't many garden decorations （装饰） and pathways. It's just beautiful plants with fruits and vegetables. We can also find many useful things for free, from pieces of old wood to old pots and pans. Or, we can build things for free from materials that other people have thrown away.
If you just remember that planting what is more than you need will take the stress away of losing some plants, you will save yourself a lot of worry, too. Besides, you need to ask yourself which plants produce enough food to make them worth growing. I actually sat down and did the maths on that one this spring. It amazed me what some plants were worth. A tomato, for example, can produce £50-£150 worth of fruit. It takes up a lot of space but that's a lot of money coming out of a 50-pence seed （种子孙）!So if I had known earlier what each plant could save us, I would have told my parents to fill our garden with different plants.
And finally, gardening doesn't have to be all or nothing. But then I guess that's more of a personality weakness than anything. I struggle with doing things a little at a time. Once I decide to do something, I usually devote every waking hour to it for a little while and then get tired. So it's okay to just have one tomato plant, and it's okay to have an off year. It will save you a lot of stress.
