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| Third of March, and the first little bit of colour in the garden - a lone yellow crocus. |
February is
the shortest month of the year, and yet it seems the longest - Especially for
eager gardeners like myself who can
hardly wait to get just simply get started. But, unless you have a heated green
house, or place indoor for jumpstarting the season it is the month when you
have to be patient and bide your time, as it is just a little too early to
start planting. Nonetheless it is the perfect month for doing some research,
reading, and putting together your plan for the spring.
I had a lot
of ideas, however when I sat down with pen and paper and started to work out
the details I realized I should keep it simple for this year and see how it
goes from there.
You see I
made a couple of mistakes in my eagerness and inexperience.
When we
first moved into our present house back in 2011, I was so exited to finally
have a garden I jumped right in and started to plant, and sow and place bulbs
without thought or care – I even planted a cherry tree without doing any
research beforehand. I went to the local plant shop, bought a tree, dug a hole,
place the tree inside and watered it lovingly - - - well, it’s still alive, but hasn’t really
thrived ?
Then came
the vegetable garden, I made some raised beds with planks salvaged from a
collapsed shed, and bits-and-pieces I found under the veranda. I was a bit
eager and didn’t really think it through, I was also careless and forgot to
remove the top soil layer which in turn made weeding super hard as grass kept
coming up, and on top of it I placed the
beds a little too close together making
it impossible to pass the lawnmower between.
I will not
even get started on my catastrophe of a compost, it was too big, got too full, and
looked ----- !
Nature is
nature, plants did grow, and flowers did bloom (some died too !). Then I
got a little discouraged, and didn’t put effort into my garden, I just sort of
let it ‘happen’. But this year I want to start again, and this time do it right
from the start.
The first
plan of action is to re-make the raised beds, longer, and with enough space to
pass the lawnmower – Then I will try out a few new vegetables and keep track of
what I am doing, and see how I can improve the coming years.
I feel privileged
to be entrusted with the care of this little garden patch, and I want to use it
as a creative outlet and a chance to re-connect with a with nature and my love
of watching things grow. Turning 40 last year has brought a lot of thoughts in
my mind, not negative thoughts per se, but small nudges to stop, pause, take a
look at where I am, where I came from, and where I am going. In the Bible it
talks about putting away childish things when you become a man, but it is not
just a good advice for young people who are leaving the nest and getting
started as adult members of society. It is something you need to do regularly
at different intervals in your life, there are different seasons in the cycle
of life and at each threshold it is a good time to stop and ponder a little,
make some changes, let go of some things, and maybe go back to the basics, to
your true interests and re-discover your
passions.
The longer
I live, and the more I see others go through their seasons I can’t help but
notice how people who are the most fulfilled and happiest in their older years
are those who return to the dreams of their youth, it gets complicated in the
middle, often we are too busy, to occupied with adult-ing, raising kids and
paying bills that we forget what we truly enjoy. Maybe the secret to finding
your life’s meaning is to go back to your childhood dreams, not necessarily the
ones about being a pink ballerina dancer, or fearless firefighter, but the more
subtle ones, the ones about being a musician, or artist, gardener or writer,
inventor, or poet. Maybe we should take the time to look back and see who we wanted
to be when we were still innocent children, and adapt that dream to our present
life….
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| The kitchen garden plan for 2019 |
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| The way I had my vegetable boxes the past couple years. |
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