# @ahs_gardening on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DWJr7JgoJIP
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/60689055-ahs-gardening-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/e35f7926b0.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-03-21T15:22:25.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** American Horticultural Society | American Gardener Magazine (@ahs_gardening) — https://gondola.cc/ahs_gardening

## Caption

As gardening season gets underway, here's a thought worth sitting with.⁠
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In the Last Words segment of our March/April issue, Donald A. Rakow writes about something every gardener knows but rarely says out loud: failure isn't the exception — it's the whole point. "Patience is a learned behavior," he writes. "No gardening season should ever be viewed as the final one."⁠
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Every frost that comes too late, every seedling that doesn't make it, every plant in the wrong place — these aren't setbacks. They're the education. The gardeners who've been at it longest will tell you the same thing: the seasons that went sideways taught them more than the ones that went beautifully.⁠
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So as you're planning beds, ordering seeds, and quietly hoping this is the year everything works — give yourself permission to get some things wrong. It's kind of the whole point.⁠
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🍅 What's the gardening mistake you've learned the most from?⁠
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Read current and past "Last Words" at ahsgardening.org. ⁠
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Not a member yet? You can join us at ahsgardening.org/join. ⁠
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Writer: Donald A. Rakow⁠
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#lastwords #gardenfailures #ahsgardening #americangardener #americanhorticulturalsociety #patience #slowgrowing #gardening #opinionpiece #gardeningmagazine

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## Tags

slowgrowing, gardening, ahsgardening, patience, opinionpiece, americanhorticulturalsociety, gardenfailures, lastwords, gardeningmagazine, americangardener

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