Gardening and Success

When one realizes they choose, in every situation, how you feel about living is remarkable. Everything in life is our choice. Our self-love stems from that. Choices for me have been hard and frightening, like moving to California for a boy I thought was magnificent (yet no commitment yet), or simple yet powerful choices, like choosing to grow food not lawns.

Our yard was destroyed when the contractors had to rebuild after a fire in our home. As Earl would ask, “what should we do,” my heart knew I wanted a garden. I have fond memories of my grandfather’s lushly scented garden, his beautiful tomatoes and the joy he took in it. Of how my father loved to press flowers in phone books. I wanted to grow flowers and especially food.

Earl agreed. Having parents that died early in life, 53 and 61, we knew how important food was to living long, full lives. April 2020 will start our twelfth year growing our own food. The garden is 9000 square feet, high-density, organic, urban and we grow food and flowers ALL year.

It has been an adventure in choices.

Dig trenches, raise beds, composting. How? Ok, raised beds, clay way too hard to dig, and composting is “dirt man’s” (i.e. Earl) job. Planting and harvesting. When? Will mother nature agree? Probably not, but seasons are short. Plant high density to get the best return on investment.

A drought? Are you kidding me woman? Ok, choose to grey water. Be more sustainable. Put a damn bucket in the sink! Keep it there when the drought is “over.”

Wait, why is that ONE kale plant shaking, like the wind is blowing, in that HUGE 8x4x2 box of greens? Fuck me it’s a fucking mole! Dig the dirt out of all NINE boxes, ALL 64 square feet of it, times NINE boxes, put mole guard down, fill them back up. Who says gardening isn’t a workout! lol

Slugs. Snails. Aphids. Organic is hard. Pick and rub them off. Oh my look at that, we attract Monarchs! I was going to dig out all that milkweed, choose to leave it. And that is a huge praying mantis! Organic is paying off.

Summer. Harvest cucumbers, zucchini, beans, corn, and peppers. Holy tomato! They are in abundance this year! We didn’t grow them to compost them or give them all away. Learn to can. Pickle. Freeze.

Winter. Harvest greens, cabbage, beets, carrots, choys, celery. Wow did it just get THAT warm in February? The bok choy is bolting. Learn to ferment. Make kimchi.

Be ready to do that WHEN the plants say it’s time. Be willing to share with those that appreciate.

“Hey friend, want something from the garden since we are coming over?”

“Sure, how about some zucchini?”

“That doesn’t grow this time of year.”

“Oh I never thought of that, we buy it all year at the grocery.”

Choose to eat seasonally. Choose to learn new fun creative ways to eat seasonally so it isn’t boring. You should see what I can do with zucchini!

Yes, I choose. In every situation. Big or small. Hard or easy. Having this garden has shown me that I can, at any given moment choose. I can choose overwhelm, stress, frustration. I can choose adventure, learning, creativity. Hard or easy is also a choice. But the state of not choosing will eat away at our soul. Make a choice: left or right; fat or thin; stay or go, love or leave. And then BE in that choice. Make a choice about making your life better, not the same as it has always been. Year after year, day after day. The choice is yours.