Gardening

I have been a forager for over 13 years, but I have only gardened 6 times. I kept feeling like I failed, year after year, unable to produce enough food to create a stocked pantry.

The two biggest aspects of failure, were not having soil, I have grown the soil on the property from rock filled clay, to composted wood shavings filled with rabbit manure and worms.

And the lack of water. We have our garden and home on the top of the hill, away from the flood plain and neighbors, which means we completely rely on the rain for our water. And for several years now, we end up having droughts for a portion of the summer that spans for weeks to up to two months! This is devastating when I have my garden thriving and then am unable to water, and then we go into drought conditions.

I feel like I finally get it though. I have to mulch my garden extensively in order to help retain the water in the soil, and to not have to water so much. And now that I have soil, I can grow more than just squash, which love fresh wood chips.

In fact, I have watermelon coming up this year that I planted last year, simply because the mulch has turned to soil, allowing it to sprout!

Our property is clay and rock filled ground, it seems to grow rocks rather than soil, and it has taken years to actually create soil that I can trowel through, that is deeper than a few inches.

But I will tell you, seeing radishes, beans, peas, mustard sprouts, corn, potatoes, watermelon, onions, broccoli, and various flowers coming up by just being placed into the soil, feels like pure magic.

I also tried seed snails this year. This is done by taking rolled paper, laying it out, filling it with soil, then rolling them up. This is such a great way to start seeds with minimal space. I have 3 containers of them, that I take out to the fenced in garden each morning to get sun, then bring in at night. I have tomatoes, peppers of all kinds, marigolds, artichokes, thyme, cauliflower, lavender, basil, parsley, with other things that haven’t yet sprouted.

And the fully fenced in yard is another aspect. I had opossums, rabbits, cats, and chickens all digging up my garden faster than I could have it planted. We invested in fencing, and chicken wire, to help keep the animals out, so that I could actually have a chance at growing decent food for my family this year.

So here is what finally clicked for me, though. Gardening is not putting seeds in the ground one time. I used to chaos garden, putting my seeds all in the soil at once, hoping they would come up at some point. But that is not how real, successful, growing food steadily happens!

It requires putting seeds in the ground, every 2-3 weeks, the entire spring, summer and fall!! This has been mind blowing, but it is proving to be working. Planting in either seed snails or in the soil, the things that don’t mind the cold air. Then working your way to more warm loving things such as peppers and tomatoes, week by week. I have been putting seeds in the ground for the past 2 months, and I am seeing the progress of doing this. My mustard greens are ready. My peas are climbing. The potatoes I left in the soil last fall, are sprouting, along with corn that overwintered.

I have flowers, like ironweed, dahlias, and coneflowers returning. I just planted all of my wildflower and butterfly attracting seeds, as well as my echinaceas. Pumpkins that I threw out for the goats and chickens, seeds that didn’t get eaten are finding their way through the soil, in various spaces, in the goat pen, a raised bed, and out in the lawn. I love seeing the abundance of nature being prolific, and creating new life all on their own.

Our woods are naturally filled with mulberry, wild plum, persimmon, black raspberries, blackberries, dew berries, wild blueberries, hazelnuts and tons of other medicinal trees.

But back to gardening. Gardening takes a type of patience, for allowing. Allowing the warmth of the soil to match up with the seed. Allowing the seed the time it needs to sprout. It requires patience for mulch to decompose into nutrient dense soil. And gardening without spending money, requires extra patience.

Last year, my word of the year was “Garden.” I wanted my life to be a garden, filled with abundance, friends, community, and nutrition. And I can see how that year has created a palpable shift in my awareness with this years garden. It is like a light bulb finally turned on, and I can see how a garden works. I can see how the placement, the timing, the flow of water run off, the fencing, the plants around the permitter, the flowers, the sun, the north and south side, all play together to create a mosaic or piece of art with living plants. And it is truly a masterpiece as it blooms and opens.

I am seeing open spaces in my garden and thinking about the fast growers, such as carrots, radishes, lettuces, will be there for the next month or two, and what will be there in the fall, that is a slower grower. I can see it all playing out in my head like a movie watching them grow and sprout.

But then again I have dreamed of a full garden before, but had little actual produce. But this was a grow once and hope they make it. Just like life, a garden takes putting seeds in the ground consistently and constantly.

If a zucchini plant gets eaten by those squash bugs, start it over immediately. If your cabbage gets eaten, grow another one immediately. I can settle into failure mode, and get down on myself as to why things aren’t working, but that doesn’t need to be the case. Who cares if a plant dies, try again! Who cares if something does’t work out, try again! We put so much effort on the way we think things will work out, that often times we forget we can just try again. Over and over and over again!

I feel like this is what human animals have done for hundreds of thousands of years. We just simply tried and tried again, over and over again. From turning mustard into broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, and cabbage. Nightshades into potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant. We humans are capable of so much, but it usually doesn’t happen in a single generation. The work we do is built upon, by seven or more generations. It takes time and patience to create new life.

But unfortunately, we are currently in a destructive time of our existence. One where individuals have the ability to create drastic change that affects billions of humans.

And when I think about the control that some of the individuals have over the pollution, air quality, data centers, I think about what it is that I can do?

I can grow a garden. I can learn. I can fail. And I can try agin.