I’ve had this post drafted for a few weeks now and was lacking the ambition to finish it. Much like the garden this time of year, it feels futile and overwhelmingly necessary all at the same time. Somehow I had better control of my garden last summer while chasing a 2 year old and 6 months pregnant. This summer it seems as though the weeds are growing a foot a day. The ones I dismiss as harmless growing vines and flowering as if they heard my thoughts and wanted to prove me wrong.
We do this for a reason. This lifestyle isn’t “easy”. It can be simple in that we are motivated by the simple desire to craft our life with our hands through growing food, cooking from scratch, and making as much as possible ourselves. Sometimes the simplicity of this motivation overshadows the exhaustive, stressful nature of this life. There’s always something that needs to be fixed. There’s always something that needs to be done. There’s a balance that we need to define and maintain, on top of all of the other maintenance, to love this life we are crafting and not resent it.
What is your reason? Let’s take a moment in this chaotic cycle of growth to remember it. Give it air. Speak it on the wind.
Learning to Prioritize
I don’t have ADD but sometimes the garden makes me feel like I do. It’s not a joke - when I walk into the garden to work but don’t have a set plan or agenda my brain turns into a ping pong match. I pull a weed from one bed and then prune a tomato in another bed. I turn around and plant a few seeds here, and then harvest something that catches my eye in a different part of the garden. While somewhat productive, I leave feeling more overwhelmed and confused than before.
The garden is my place of sanctuary. The place I turn to for clear thoughts and to connect to my intuition. And so I must prioritize.
Jill Winger recently shared about garden zones in one of her emails. I’ve been using this concept in my garden without naming it and it helps to make this maintenance stage of the garden more enjoyable. We may take growing our food seriously but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ourselves.
Of course, I can’t find her email now. Her process is this: How many days do you realistically show up in your garden to work? Split your garden into that many zones and show up in one zone per day in the garden.
I can count on four days a week to work in the garden. I have 10-hour work days three days a week and anything I get done those days I consider a bonus! I split my garden into 4 zones. My zones are flexible, depending on the needs of the garden. So some weeks that looks like a physical division - in ground beds and splitting my raised beds into thirds. Some weeks it’s plant and task-focused - tomatoes one day, new planting another day, harvesting, and then weeding.
No matter how you divide your garden or gardening tasks into zones, the key is prioritizing your time.
Start with a general idea of what needs to be done. Make a list on your phone or write it out physically.
Label the tasks (either mentally or with a color or symbol) by need.
critical (staking tomatoes, weeds that have gone to seed, weeds that vine on your plants or otherwise crowd them)
important (planting, pruning, mulching)
would be nice
When time is short, scan your list and focus on the critical items.
Update your list weekly and repeat, repeat, repeat.
The 3 c’s:
Currently Reading: Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy (our July read for the summer bookclub)
Cautionary Tale: We’ve been packing our schedules so tightly - on the go somewhere every single day. We are conditioned to think we need to be taking our children to events and social gatherings but I’ve noticed over this hectic month that we also need unscheduled, unstructured time at home as a family. It’s something we haven’t had much of recently. With our days being packed our time at home is often rushed and full of chores and all of the garden stuff I need to catch up on. July is already looking crazy so I’m making it a point to not schedule another darn thing!
Cravable Eats: Or rather, drinks! I recently made a mulberry shrub and I can’t get enough. It’s such a good summer drink.
News & Notes
The Homegrown Sourcebook is still available for a limited time (until July 4th) at the promotional price of $16 for the digital download of the magazine and bonuses (recipes, coupons, and more). In case you missed it, I contributed an article about summer succession planting.
If you’re local to Columbus, Ohio we are hosting a free nature play group for kids on July 20th at Inniswood Gardens. Join us!
I can’t stop thinking about hosting a pickle party. I envision a gathering where everyone brings a jar of homemade pickles and we crack them all open around other charcuterie foods and just enjoy acidic food and good company. Should I do it?