Gardening offers so many lessons about how things thrive. It’s well into the 70’s along the Jersey Shore and in spite of the raging tornadoes that have been rampaging through the US’s mid-section, these last few Spring-like days offer gardeners a chance to try again to get something right.
This year I will stake the tomatoes and the dahlias earlier so that fewer hit the ground and I can enjoy them. I divided the lilies Easter afternoon so I am hoping to have extended my enjoyment of their one day life span by increasing their numbers and their impact. The soil in the raised bed has been turned several times and nutrients added. Squirrels have eaten the tulip heads. I will get them next year. And I am overjoyed to have a chance to make a better garden.
It’s hard to believe that a seedling like this can grow into a tomato that I will eat to nourish my body. I feel a reverence about feeding the earth with good things so that it will feed me with good things for continued life.
This same feeling of excitement and uncertainty about how things will grow is the attitude I remind myself to bring to my everyday life. Common sense, right. In the gardening realm, my strengths are I can do individual plant research about optimal plant care and I can follow up with the physical labor and plant love to deliver on the promise of a yield. I can ensure these plants have the best environment and circumstances to survive, but I also have the wherewithal to see that they thrive. That means more nutrients for me. We all can use the wisdom from our individual lives to improve our circumstances.
Share what expectation do you have for you garden this year? Are you doing anything different?
Both images Simon Howden
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