Realization of the Day:
It's time for a new game plan. Actually more like an extended half-time period but without all the outrageous festivities.
Back in early spring, I was doing an energy work session over the phone with a friend of mine, and as I started listing all the things I was so behind with—including my totally neglected garden—she said, "What would happen if you didn't have a garden this year?"
The thought was so inconceivable I literally had no response.
But now I know. Life goes on—just with fewer vegetables.
Gardening has always been a huge part of my farmgirl life. My kitchen garden may not be as big as the first one I planted back in 1995 (all 10,000 square feet of it!) after moving to the country, and I may not start everything from seed anymore, but I always plant a garden.
Except this year. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration. I did get that bed of sweet peppers planted last month—and although it's just one 4'x8' raised bed, I do realize that some people's entire garden is smaller than that. Sometimes it's all a matter of perspective—and pretzel logic.
And there are a few perennials and volunteers hidden among the incredibly healthy weeds: Swiss chard of course, some arugula here and there, a row of stalwart chives. There are even a few black-eyed susans and bachelor's buttons (the best reseeders ever) adding some color here and there.
If pressed, I'm sure I could throw together some sort of a meal from the garden, or at least a halfway decent mixed salad, though part of the mix would have to be edible weeds. I've been meaning to tell you about some of these weeds for years, but I always have so many 'real' salad greens to discuss (and eat) that I never get around to it.
My extremely late planted garlic which was just about ready to harvest around the 4th of July may or may not have been ruined by the recent few rainfalls we finally got. I'm not complaining; I'd gladly sacrifice my entire questionable garlic crop for the sake of the rest of the farm. After nearly a month without any rain, the fields were already burning up, and even the weeds in the farmyard were crunchy. The heat and humidity haven't let up any (still 103° heat index for the week), but the rain really helped.
So why haven't I been out in my garden lately? You can read the whole crazy story in my recent post on Farmgirl Fare, It's Been a Hell of a Few Weeks (and Not in a Good Way). Oh, and it'll also make sense why I dug through my files to find a snake picture for this post.
I'm still having trouble believing everything that's happened around here recently. In the grand scheme of things, having a garden full of mostly giant weeds is really a very small deal, but sometimes it's the little things that end up meaning the most—or holding us together. I'm actually surprised I'm not more upset. Of course it could just be all the drugs I'm on. Knowing my Amish neighbors should have plenty of organic tomatoes for sale does help. And there's still that little sprout of hope known as fall planting!
In the meantime, I definitely haven't given up on garden blogging, and in fact, I'm hoping to have a chance to do a lot more of it in the next few months. I may not have much growing out there at the moment, but I have all kinds of of backlogged photos and post topics I still want to share. You know I especially love telling you about all the things I've learned and the dumb mistakes I've made in order to save you from doing the same in your garden.
So have you ever gone a year without a garden—or perhaps with a much smaller/different garden than usual? How did it go? Did it end up changing the way you gardened after that? I'd love to know. This unplanned break has been making me really think about all the ways I want to change both my garden and my gardening.
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You know what? This is my first year gardening and I love it! So you relax this season and I'll pick up the slack. :) I've got a small plot in a community garden and I never knew how much I'd enjoy watching the veggies grow! I'm finding myself smiling every time I visit.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first year in my house that I've had such a small garden. Our spring was wet and cold, and it lasted until the beginning of July. As a result, the peas weren't ready to harvest until last week (a month late) and any attempt at seeding warmer weather crops was a bust for most gardeners. I've got a potato bed in, and some beans, one zucchini, one cucumber. I have come to accept that the garden is a living entity, and as such has good years and bad years. I feel badly for my friends who just started a big garden this year, I keep reassuring them that they aren't failures!!
ReplyDeleteThe wonderful thing about the garden -- there's always next year.
went to your other blog to read your story and oh my. Oh. My. I am very glad you are on the mend!
ReplyDeleteJust gone through your blog and found it wonderful. It was nice going through your blog. keep on posting.
ReplyDeleteI was going to tell you that it really doesn't matter. You do what you can with what you've got. That was before I clicked over to read your post about recent events. Now I'm just going to say, girl, your plate is OVERFULL and just never mind about the garden.
ReplyDeleteThis year mine's much smaller and has a lot less variety. Had to fence because of woodchucks and rabbits, and everything went in late. I don't even have tomatoes on the vines yet, just flowers. But whatever.
You take care of yourself. That's one hell of a ride you guys have been on. xoxo.
Hi Susan,
ReplyDeleteGlad you're feeling well enough to post after your snake bite ordeal.
My garden is a big disappointment this year! I worked the hardest this year and have seen the worst results in the 3 years I've put in a garden. It's a good example of "the more you think you know, the less you really know". I have so much to learn, so I'm trying to reframe this disappointing year in gardening as a year to learn and do more research. Looking forward to your posts on the lessons you've learned throughout the years you've gardened.
Take it easy and stay cool...
Bruno
You're not the only one who hasn't been able to do everything you normally do and want to do in your garden. This year I'm working 25hrs a week at a fabric store in addition to my etsy shops. Only so much time and energy so my square foot gardening is not much more that a couple of tomato plants. as Kate said, there's always next year!
ReplyDeleteI was ok with the picture until I read the caption underneath...I didn't even see that snake. If I were you I don't know that I could go back outside, let alone in the garden.
ReplyDeleteYes, I've gone several....many years without a garden. My health hit the skids from chronic Lyme Disease and other wonderful little friends it brings with it. The year that I thought I was going to die, my husband built me my first 4 4x8 raised beds. He built a little picket fence and gave me a gate and put pea gravel in the isles...it was beautiful! I'd always wanted a gate! He knew it would help my spirits to be outside playing in the dirt. And it did. As my journey continued in finding healing through food, every year I expanded my garden. It has grown and grown and grown to the point that I am out of room...well, not really we have the land, just not where the garden is.
I am now so blessed with good health and a wonderful outlook on life, I have a bunch of barnyard animals to go with my garden.
But sometimes life hands us lemons...as in your case lately a truck load of lemons and we need to add a little sugar and stir or get help in making the lemon aide. The Bambi & Templeton have been challenging me this year and I've decided that if everything fails, then I'll buy it from someone who succeeded. Yes, visit your Amish neighbor! I just might have to also, because mine are showing blossom rot badly. I have been able to grow weeds though and wouldn't ya know it, the next Farm Gals meeting is at my house and of course they'll want a farm tour......how to cover weeds????? Maybe I'll pay the little girls next door to pull weeds for me one day! You know that's how everyone else does it....and then they never tell.
Hope you are feeling much better. Very soon!
Dang you've been busy getting ten years worth of everything sad and bad out of the way.
ReplyDeleteHave a peace filled healing and come back stronger than ever.
I'm sorry to hear about your past few weeks. My garden suffered two years ago when I had a broken wrist with a cast for 2 1/2 months. It does make you appreciate it when you can get back to it, but it takes a full season to catch up. Recently, I made the big decision to stop composting in my city (Melbourne, Aus) backyard - you can read about it on my blog: http://turnipsandtoile.blogspot.com/2010/06/compost-confessions.html Enjoy the Oreos for now!
ReplyDeleteI should've scaled the garden way back this year, but I didn't. Because, like you I think, the garden is now kind of a part of me, and a part of me that I needed to retain in order to keep some perspective on who I am now that I have undergone such a drastic change in how other people view me. Gardening is for ME, you know? I mean, other people eat from it, obviously, but it was something I needed to prove to myself, that my identity hasn't been completely subsumed by the Mother title.
ReplyDeleteWow, am I overthinking JUST A LITTLE about a patch of dirt?
Anyway. Maybe you could just have a tomato in a pot near the kitchen door? I put one near ours--even though I have two dozen in the garden--figuring if it was a really dry year, at least that one by the house would get watered.
I'm sorry for the loss of your Robin. In addition, the toxic encounters you and your husband have had recently with a Copperhead and Black Widow have really tested you. We must really appreciate our pioneer ancestors who faced such obstacles without a hopital 40 miles away. I'm into my 3rd year of gardening at 7000 ft. in the mountains east of Albuquerque. My garden produces a lots for such a small rocky area. This year I'm trying sweet corn, cucumbers and watermelons although the season here is only about 90-100 days. In addition, I have tomatoes, yellow squash, chiles, eggplant, lettuce, radishes, pumpkins, green beans, dill, cilantro, basil, sage, and oregano. The monsoon rains have recently brought wonderful water that have really stimulated growth. I love a small garden and the cvhallenge of trying to beat the first frost.
ReplyDeleteHorrible, horrible snake story, Susan! I hope you're on the mend now.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first year I haven't had a garden in the 6 years I've been gardening. We had some injuries, among other setbacks and by the time we were ready - the temperatures were not. I hope to get everything set up for a nice fall garden, although fall in Texas doesn't start until about November.
I always have a small garden (4x8 raised bed, natch) although I'm very laisez-faire about it. I plant things, I weed maybe once early on, and then I wait for things to turn pretty colors. Usually this goes pretty well.
ReplyDeleteThis year has just been bizarre, though. We're in Missouri too, up near St Louis. We've had such odd weather ... I put seedlings in about May, and they got flooded out by the 2 weeks of rain we got in early spring. Re-planted and lost all the peppers to the FIRE that seemed to be the weather of choice in June. Right now I have a few tomatoes turning ripe, but my squash and zucchini are rotting at 3" from the weird torrential rain we get once a week or so now, and the broccoli seems to have given up entirely.
Even the raspberries put out a few berries, then gave up the ghost.
Maybe I'm just not hands-on enough to regulate water & sun exposure, but it seems like this was just not the year for a garden.
Last year Mr. Murphy came to visit us in early Spring, he didn't leave until Fall. All my big plans for our large, heirloom and organic garden went to the way side when our old, hand dug well from 1925, lost it's "umph" and we had to drill a new well. I was saddened by the fact that I wouldn't be canning goodies from our garden, however, I had no choice but to "let it go." So this year, I have a wonderful garden again, with more creative art design to it than ever before. I made a giant loom for the corner where I can weave wool from my sheep, flowers, grasses. Having time off from a garden isn't a BAD thing, it makes one draw on the creative juices in anticipation for the next years bounty. Enjoy the time off.
ReplyDeleteI so feel your garden pain (not the snakebite pain, though -- I am so sorry that happened to you! what a scary thing.)
ReplyDeleteBut I've had a spot in a community garden the last few years and LOVED it. This summer, though, I came back to the city for the summer to do a 10-week fellowship... a great opportunity for my career but a terrible one for my garden. I still can't believe that I'm going home in another week and won't have any herbs and veggies in August.
In a way, though, it's made me appreciate it a little more. I was really frustrated by the tomato blight last summer and was annoyed and negative about gardening for a long time, but missing it is making me realize how much a part of me it is now. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that... both of us will be back at it next year!
I have had a garden pretty much every year for the past 15-16 years, with the exception of 2008. My dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer right about the time I would have been starting my tomato and pepper seeds that year, so I knew I'd be making a lot of trips into St. Louis (we're in central MO). So, instead I planted my beds with peanut seeds, which are pretty easy to grow. I harvested them in November, a few weeks before my dad died. I came home from his memorial service to find our only remaining cat laying on his side, panting on the carpet--he died about a week later. So, I can very much sympathize with what you've been through. Don't worry about a garden this year--I have so many problems with weather and pests, I always say "wait till next year"!
ReplyDeleteLP
Gotta tell you, I have seriously been thinking about it! I moved to the country mostly to have a bigger garden, but in the meantime have started graduate school... We have a 55 foot by 65 foot vegetable garden, which often feels unmanageable. We've tried to shrink it with perennials -- asparagus, strawberries, and a row of raspberries. But this year I've still found myself wondering if I should just join a CSA like all the other sane liberal people in my area... But then I think about zucchini and cukes -- how little work they are, and how much reward... And I go back to the idea that I'll plant what I can and try not to get too attached to the stuff that dies or is overrun with weeds!
ReplyDeleteYou've got a good friend right there, Farmgirl. What is an energy session? Seriously, I think I need one. What is it?
ReplyDeleteSo I've had my most ambitious garden this year, but am ending up with almost no garden. At least no tomatoes, save a very brave cherry tomato volunteer. Squash has been decimated despite heroic efforts to combat squash bugs. There are successes, but geez -can't succeed with tomatoes and squash!?
The great thing about gardens is that there is always next year or even maybe next season. It'll be waiting for you! Be well!
I love a garden but some years (like this one) I feel I am a success if all I get planted are tomatoes. They are planted in big pots by the back fence which gives me a chance to pick and nibble on my way to the car. For Southern California we are having the coldest summer in years and the harvest is not great but homegrown tomatoes can't be beat.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, there were a couple of years without a garden, no vegetables and I survived it. I just found I wasn't as centered without one. But, with all my small kids at the time, I just did the best I could, and I guess that's all any of us can do.
ReplyDeleteColleen sent me over here from her green blog. Glad I found you. Missouri isn't so very far away.~~Dee
I keep coming back to this photo. I love the colors and it just seems - perfect. Great job.
ReplyDeleteThis was so encouraging to hear. I'm not the only one who gets behind and has to let things go. Our Spring was so wet and cold it was difficult to get anything started on time. We'll see what happens with the harvest.
ReplyDeleteYou keep a wonderful journal and I'm glad to be able to check in on it now and again.
My garden is much smaller these past few years. Now that I let the kids garden with me - our veggies are either picked WAY too early, or stomped on as they trample through the beds. I've learned to just let them enjoy nature vs stressing over my crop; they're only little for so long!
ReplyDeleteDenine @ www.weknowstuff.us.com
It's very very hard to let go. I sometimes think those that are able to say "I can't do that" are the strongest among us.
ReplyDeleteI missed gardening last year due to illness (anemia) and I was so spent by my daily life that I didn't even miss it.
This year I've had different curve balls thrown at me, but at least I can meet them standing up.
I so love your blogs, your animals, your writing style. I felt so sad that you got hurt, right when you were already down, emotionally. :(
Now, though, it can only get better, right? :)
This year, at the first of June, I moved from SW Colorado to NE Washington. So, for the first time in at least 10 years, no garden. (I do have a tomato in a pot because, well, I couldn't stand it). It's very weird to not have a garden. But it is also causing me to make friends at farmers markets, explore all the store options, and do a lot of u-pick, so I'm getting to know the area well. It's kind of liberating in a way. But I do miss the therapy of getting my hands in the dirt.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, in another post I was looking at, you asked who the gardener was for Chez Penez. Its Bob Cannard. Here's a piece from his website "Green String Farm" on weeds to make you feel better. It's not that you are NOT gardening, it's that you are increasing soil fertility!
"If every plant helps, then what are weeds but nature's cover crops? Instead of fighting against these persistent plants, we let them grow up alongside our planted cover crops and our food crops.
When the nature crop grows so vigourously that it threatens to impede on the food crop's share of sunlight, it's time to manage the competition. In an orchard or vineyard, cover crops are flattened with a heavy roller pulled by a tractor. In vegetable fields, the tall plants are mowed or scythed down so that they are shorter than the food crop. We also employ sheep and goats to graze in certain fields. The key is to control the nature crops without killing them."
Susan, I would say you and Joe have had more than your share of troubles. The picture of the snake alone gave me the heebie jeebies!
ReplyDeleteI am sorry you have had all this hit you and at the same time. It doesn't seem fair but that is life sometimes.
Just take it easy and rest assured it will all be there when you are well. It may mean just brush hogging the garden area in the fall for next spring. But think of all that good green manure going into the soil.
Take this time to review and make plans, re-evaluate things.
I am doing that now, I am calling it streamlining my life. I will be 71 next month and have had some issues with my hands, wrists and shoulders.....not a good thing for gardening. I have been gardening, canning and preserving since 1961.
Could be rheumatoid arthritis. Hopefully it is not. I will be cutting back regardless and making more time for doing things I love to do.
It is a list making time for me.
Good luck.
Hey Everybody,
ReplyDeleteThank you all so much for taking the time to leave these great comments, which I've just been reading again.
I think the best part of keeping a garden blog is connecting with all of you, hearing what's going on in your garden, learning how you garden, listening to your comforting and inspiring knowledge, wisdom, and advice - and your responses to this post really cement that fact.
My apologies for not replying to each of you individually, but instead I'm hoping to (finally) get another blog post up this afternoon. : )
Nancy,
When I wrote this post I was blanking out on the kind of energy work my friend does. It's called polarity therapy, but she told me that her way of doing it is totally different than the way most other people do it. I'd never heard the term before I started working with her. I connected with her through a mutual friend, and am really glad I did.
I looked up polarity online just now, and apparently there's an American Polarity Therapy Association. You can read more about what polarity therapy is here.
Because of the way her gifts/skills/whatever you want to call them 'work,' she can actually do sessions over the phone, which is what we do since she lives in New England. I can only imagine how good a hands on session would be. I've only had a few sessions so far, basically for budgetary reasons, but I really think they help. I would do one every week if I could!
Jennifer,
Yes, you're right - Bob Cannard! It's all coming back to me now. Thanks so much.
Okay, and now onto that blog post before I let myself get sidetracked once again! :)
Hey Everybody,
ReplyDeleteThank you all so much for taking the time to leave these great comments, which I've just been reading again.
I think the best part of keeping a garden blog is connecting with all of you, hearing what's going on in your garden, learning how you garden, listening to your comforting and inspiring knowledge, wisdom, and advice - and your responses to this post really cement that fact.
My apologies for not replying to each of you individually, but instead I'm hoping to (finally) get another blog post up this afternoon. : )
Nancy,
When I wrote this post I was blanking out on the kind of energy work my friend does. It's called polarity therapy, but she told me that her way of doing it is totally different than the way most other people do it. I'd never heard the term before I started working with her. I connected with her through a mutual friend, and am really glad I did.
I looked up polarity online just now, and apparently there's an American Polarity Therapy Association. You can read more about what polarity therapy is here.
Because of the way her gifts/skills/whatever you want to call them 'work,' she can actually do sessions over the phone, which is what we do since she lives in New England. I can only imagine how good a hands on session would be. I've only had a few sessions so far, basically for budgetary reasons, but I really think they help. I would do one every week if I could!
Jennifer,
Yes, you're right - Bob Cannard! It's all coming back to me now. Thanks so much.
Okay, and now onto that blog post before I let myself get sidetracked once again - or give into the fatigue the blasted pain meds (and the meds to negate the side effects of the pain meds - so crazy) I'm on are causing. :)
Hey Everybody,
ReplyDeleteThank you all so much for taking the time to leave these great comments, which I've just been reading again.
I think the best part of keeping a garden blog is connecting with all of you, hearing what's going on in your garden, learning how you garden, listening to your comforting and inspiring knowledge, wisdom, and advice - and your responses to this post really cement that fact.
My apologies for not replying to each of you individually, but instead I'm hoping to (finally) get another blog post up this afternoon. : )
Seems I ramble on so long Blogger says my comments are too long to publish, LOL, so I have to split them up.
ReplyDeleteNancy,
When I wrote this post I was blanking out on the kind of energy work my friend does. It's called polarity therapy, but she told me that her way of doing it is totally different than the way most other people do it. I'd never heard the term before I started working with her. I connected with her through a mutual friend, and am really glad I did.
I looked up polarity online just now, and apparently there's an American Polarity Therapy Association. You can read more about what polarity therapy is here.
Because of the way her gifts/skills/whatever you want to call them 'work,' she can actually do sessions over the phone, which is what we do since she lives in New England. I can only imagine how good a hands on session would be. I've only had a few sessions so far, basically for budgetary reasons, but I really think they help. I would do one every week if I could!
Jennifer,
Yes, you're right - Bob Cannard! It's all coming back to me now. Thanks so much.
Okay, and now onto that blog post before I let myself get sidetracked once again - or give into the fatigue the blasted pain meds I'm on are causing. :)
I gave up giving any effort to my garden beginning the year my first child was born. I had another baby less than two years later and took about a four-year break from the garden. I decided to focus my responsibilites on what absolutely needed to be done and gardening didn't fit. Diapering and making meals and taking care of little peoples' needs and keeping a sort of-clean house and keeping my sanity all took priority over giving effort to the garden. The difference is that I was able to make that choice for myself--you've had it made for you which is hard to take. Your neighbors' farm stand is a good subsitute for this year. You could ask a friend to pop in some seeds for fall lettuce or spinach, etc. if you feel well enough to take care of them in a couple weeks. Or not--you've been through the wringer and I am so sorry for your losses and your illnesses. Hang in there!
ReplyDelete