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Gardening can be a rewarding experience. You get to be outside, you watch your efforts come to life, and you get to eat your work! And unless you're a really gung-ho gardener, with just the right amount of elbow grease and back pain at the right times, you can be a lazy, but successful gardener.

First, do the groundwork. I mean, literally, the "ground work." There's no getting around this part. You can till the ground, or make a raised box, but you must prepare the soil.

Because you're a lazy gardener, you'll probably put off making your garden until next year. You can still use this time.

While I was in high school and living at home we had an unused flowerbed in the back. I conducted an experiment, something completely unrelated to gardening for a purpose that I will not divulge. The flowerbed became the final resting place for many apple cores, wilted lettuce leaves, bad potatoes, banana peels (high in potassium!), and the occasional fellowship offerings from my feline friend, Frizzy. Hey, I wasn't planning on eating those mice, birds, and chipmunks

The following year, I had already abandoned my project. But Dad was bringing home faltering flowers from work. The flowerbed then became a literal hospice of horticulture. Within days, most of the flowers saw a healthy recovery. Thus: good soil, less toil.

Also, make Mother Nature work for herself. Why should you do all the soil aerating and tilling and turning when there are things that do it for you? Go to the worm, thou sluggard. They till and assist in fertilizing the soil, and generally don't eat your produce. A visit to the nearest bait shop can help supplement your natural population, and there is a growing industry of worm farms.

A lazy gardener who is also a lady, or perhaps, a metrosexual guy, is likely to spend more time at the salon than in the garden. Use this to your advantage as well. Politely ask the stylist at a hair salon for the clippings they sweep up, after they're in a bag, of course. Often the hair is wet, so let it air out and dry before generously spreading it over your garden. Human hair makes an outstanding source of nitrogen. As an added bonus, it repels many pests, except the two-legged ones. Speaking of pests, place pans of water nearby your garden. This will help prevent squirrels from ripping off your tomatoes. When a squirrel gets your tomatoes, they want the water in the tomato.

All living things require water. A garden hose is the most obvious solution. Even a good hose isn't

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