Nature's Grace

One of my favorite things about gardening is the little surprises that Nature gives us. The end of the seasons so far have come way too quickly, and we never have time to finish any harvesting or preparing for winter or all the other things that need to get done. But things that so regretfully have to be cut at their losses at the end of one year, often turn around and become free bonuses in the next...

Last year the kale got overrun with pests, and I had to forsake it. The garlic for two years now was not planted or harvested at the right time, and so didn't grow right, or grew too much. We made a conscious decision not to grow vegetables this year. We wanted to, we always want to because how wonderful to have fresh, organic veggies, right in your own yard!! But in keeping with the simplification theme, we decided instead of setting ourselves up for failure yet again, we'll just get our veggies from another organic farmer who has more success with that end of things.

But Nature has a grace that provides for us. For me, Nature is God, and the old adage holds true, "do your best, and let God do the rest." So while putting compost around the dill and parsley, some old seeds took root, and we now have a bonus cucumber and tomato plant. Totally out of place, but so welcome just the same. And one of the old kale plants made it through the winter, and sprouted up. It's actually flowering now, which doesn't necessarily bode well for getting much kale, but it's a beautiful plant, and it might just reseed itself. The garlic we planted this year (way wrong time AGAIN) only yielded a few plants, and none of them are looking so hot. BUT, the garlic from previous years is looking pretty darn good, and we just might get garlic after all. And we have two random Maple trees just sprouting up growing along, and hopefully they'll become strong enough that we can transplant them later.

The more time I work at this farming stuff, the more I realize that you should only try to control so much. In truth, we never have any control at all, but we can manage the illusion long enough sometimes to find peace and happiness. It's a balance, however, and sometimes by just letting go, we allow Nature to take over and give us what we really need.