The Passage of Time
It's impossible to ignore the passage of time, once you've planted a seed. These sunflower seedlings, just barely peeking their heads above the soil last week, are now in urgent need of planting:
Once I had seedlings going, I knew the urge to get the garden beds in order would become inescapable. Gardening keeps me in touch with Earth's cycles, the seasons, the movement of the sun across the sky. Moving house disconnected me from that somewhat. Now I'm tuning back in.
At this point I have decent intuition about the timing of things in my garden. That doesn't mean I alwasy have the time to do the things I know need doing.
In fact I rarely have the time I need to get things done at just the right time, and this causes some tension. I try not to turn that tension into anxiety. When it comes to gardening, I mostly succeed. I only need to remind myself that I garden for the pure joy of it, and that I promised myself from the beginning that I wouldn't let it turn into a source of stress.
I remind myself of all the times I let things go to late, and it all worked out okay. The times I let those seedlings languish in their tiny pots until they went to seed, and then I had to buy more from the garden centre, and that was okay. The times I saw the aphids invade, watched daily as they went from few to overrunning the brassicas. I had to pull them up, put them in the compost, and plant something else. And that was okay, too. In fact you can learn a lot from watching what happens when you do things the "wrong" way.
You'd think I could learn to apply this attitude to other areas of my life. I certainly try. It never seems to come as easy when it comes to everything else.
Those seedlings were suppposed to inspire me to get the garden beds - currently full of weeds and neglect - into order. But life gets busy. I am a full-time homeschooling parent, and first my kid got sick. Then I got sick. The the friend who sometimes looks after my kid got sick.
And so by yesterday, the sun shinning and every plant and bird in my garden whispering "Spring!" in my ear, I couldn't take it anymore. I found myself saying to my dear kiddo "Look, I'm going outside to garden right now and I'd love it if you come with me, but if you don't want to, please find something else to do." And after negotiating for my help making lemonade, he came outside with me and 'helped' me by weilding the secateurs and cutting down anything I pointed him at. Shortly thereafter, I got some childcare help and a glorious hour and a half of uninterrupted garden time. You learn to take your opportunities when you can get them.
In fact I rarely have the time I need to get things done at just the right time, and this causes some tension. I try not to turn that tension into anxiety. When it comes to gardening, I mostly succeed. I only need to remind myself that I garden for the pure joy of it, and that I promised myself from the beginning that I wouldn't let it turn into a source of stress.
I remind myself of all the times I let things go to late, and it all worked out okay. The times I let those seedlings languish in their tiny pots until they went to seed, and then I had to buy more from the garden centre, and that was okay. The times I saw the aphids invade, watched daily as they went from few to overrunning the brassicas. I had to pull them up, put them in the compost, and plant something else. And that was okay, too. In fact you can learn a lot from watching what happens when you do things the "wrong" way.
You'd think I could learn to apply this attitude to other areas of my life. I certainly try. It never seems to come as easy when it comes to everything else.
Those seedlings were suppposed to inspire me to get the garden beds - currently full of weeds and neglect - into order. But life gets busy. I am a full-time homeschooling parent, and first my kid got sick. Then I got sick. The the friend who sometimes looks after my kid got sick.
And so by yesterday, the sun shinning and every plant and bird in my garden whispering "Spring!" in my ear, I couldn't take it anymore. I found myself saying to my dear kiddo "Look, I'm going outside to garden right now and I'd love it if you come with me, but if you don't want to, please find something else to do." And after negotiating for my help making lemonade, he came outside with me and 'helped' me by weilding the secateurs and cutting down anything I pointed him at. Shortly thereafter, I got some childcare help and a glorious hour and a half of uninterrupted garden time. You learn to take your opportunities when you can get them.
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