My first year of gardening is coming to a close and I have learned a great deal. I expected to learn a bit about germination, indoor seed starting, transplanting, growing from seed outdoors, watering schedules, planting schedules and so on. I learned a fair bit about building raised beds and potato containers, and soil makeup and structure as well. What I wasn't really expecting was to learn so much about myself, and how uncomplimentary that could be!
I have a desire to develop a homestead on my property. Not just a garden, but a suburban homestead. I have well over 1/2 an acre of usable land. Certainly, having sand instead of soil is a bit of a set back, but poor soil can be overcome. It is true that the city council makes it more difficult to achieve my goal of self sufficiency, but they can be reasoned with, and in time, I am sure that we will work out some agreement regarding animals on the property. Almost everything that presents a problem is simply a part of the learning curve. I have voles tearing things up in the raised beds. I will learn how to be rid of them. I have more weeds than food in the garden. I will learn to limit their growth while promoting the growth of the plants I want to have in the garden. It is all possible.
The one thing that has me discouraged, puzzled and nearly defeated is my own character. I give up too easily. Maybe it is because I set goals too high to begin with. Goals do need to be achievable and reasonable. It started after we came home from our summer vacation. The garden was a wreck, and I wasn't prepared for what I came home to. Powdery mildew had killed off most of every vining plant in the garden. The weeds were choking out everything that the mildew wasn't killing. The deer had eaten the blueberry plants to bare twigs. And I responded by letting things slide, by being discouraged into inaction. That is a disturbing character flaw.
It is the beginning of October, and there is so much to do in the garden. I am just sitting here looking at it get worse and worse. It gets worse than that. The garden is only a small part of what I hope to achieve. I haven't built the smoke house yet. I haven't started on an outdoor kitchen. I put the rabbits and chickens on the back burner, and I haven't done more than lay out where I want the hoop house to be.
Here's a look at the devastation:
The Circle of Life
I have a desire to develop a homestead on my property. Not just a garden, but a suburban homestead. I have well over 1/2 an acre of usable land. Certainly, having sand instead of soil is a bit of a set back, but poor soil can be overcome. It is true that the city council makes it more difficult to achieve my goal of self sufficiency, but they can be reasoned with, and in time, I am sure that we will work out some agreement regarding animals on the property. Almost everything that presents a problem is simply a part of the learning curve. I have voles tearing things up in the raised beds. I will learn how to be rid of them. I have more weeds than food in the garden. I will learn to limit their growth while promoting the growth of the plants I want to have in the garden. It is all possible.
The one thing that has me discouraged, puzzled and nearly defeated is my own character. I give up too easily. Maybe it is because I set goals too high to begin with. Goals do need to be achievable and reasonable. It started after we came home from our summer vacation. The garden was a wreck, and I wasn't prepared for what I came home to. Powdery mildew had killed off most of every vining plant in the garden. The weeds were choking out everything that the mildew wasn't killing. The deer had eaten the blueberry plants to bare twigs. And I responded by letting things slide, by being discouraged into inaction. That is a disturbing character flaw.
It is the beginning of October, and there is so much to do in the garden. I am just sitting here looking at it get worse and worse. It gets worse than that. The garden is only a small part of what I hope to achieve. I haven't built the smoke house yet. I haven't started on an outdoor kitchen. I put the rabbits and chickens on the back burner, and I haven't done more than lay out where I want the hoop house to be.
Here's a look at the devastation:
The Circle of Life
