My mom always had gardens. We had a garden about 80 ft. by 120 ft. (I kid you not) as well as subgardens of strawberries, grapes, raseberries, asperagas, and for awhile a small second vegitable patch. Oh, and highbush blueberries. The point is, that when your mom is both industrious and has a major outdoor hobby like this, YOU end up to your neck in it too.
Now, a couple friends of our family got inspired by this and tried gardening on their own, with some success I might add. Yes, they could plat whatever they felt like, because thats how things work. However, they didn\'t do things like fertilize the soil enough, remove the rocks enough, till the ground enough (you know, the process that makes the dirt fluffy enough for plants to grow in), and most especially, they didn\'t weed. Most were content to occasionally spray a pesticide, but with their inconsistencies, the bugs ate most of the stuff anyway. What was left was scrawny, week, bug munched plants with a yield per square foot that was a shame. Were im going with this, is that the better your skill in gardening, the better your ability to grow crops quickly, with a minimal amount of labor and time, to avoid disaster more readily, and to maximize the possible yield. Those things should be the factors in the skill.