It’s springtime in the Midwest, and I took my car to get it washed earlier today. I had my oldest with me, and we decided to try out a newer car wash that we drive by a lot. When we pulled up, I was surprised the service had an app, one-off pricing, and a monthly rate for “unlimited” washes with four different service levels. The whole setup gave my gym vibes, and while my car was going down the conveyor belt, I wondered how many people paid for unlimited washes and didn’t go more than twice a month to justify the cost.

After we got home, we did some yard work, and I tried to find care information for two of the Abelia bushes we planted last summer. We couldn’t tell if they were dead or supposed to look like they did, but after some searching, I found Gardenia, which does a decent job of filling in info about random plants.

Years ago, after we bought our house, I started using the Sunday service to help me figure out how to keep our lawn healthy. The subscription service is one part lawn analysis, a soil test, bags of fertilizers that come in the mail, and a ton of information on how to keep your lawn healthy.

While our lawn is healthy, I still feel underwhelmed trying to keep plants and flowers alive and healthy outside our lawn. After using Sunday, why don’t we have a similar garden service?

I want to find my address using “not-Google Maps,” pick the areas of my yard from the satellite image of my yard, and use a polygon tool to block off areas of my yard where I can grow plants.

The service could show me which plants will work best based on shade and the side of my house they are planted on. I would like/star the plants I want in my yard, and the service could give me advice, planting, and care details each week or month. I could visit my local nurseries to buy plants, or I would buy seeds or starter plants through the service.

While I’m not immune to feeling tired of subscription service fatigue, I don’t mind paying for services that teach me skills like gardening because I will waste more money failing than being shown at least the right way to start.

A few friends told me about joining a monthly LEGO subscription service that sends them a box of LEGOs every month. They play music or podcasts, lay out the instructions, and build the LEGO kit. Once they complete the build, they mail everything back and get another one. The beauty of LEGOs is that you follow the directions.

More recently, I started hearing about this trend on a few podcasts, where people like not having to decide and destress by following directions.

So why can’t Gardening be more like building LEGOs?