How to Deal With Garden Fails
We have all been there, haven’t we? Excited one day and defeated the next. Today we discuss How to Deal With Garden Fails.
The Summer Garden
In the dead of summer, leaning over a garden bed, hand plucking out the weeds that have grown overnight. This is not the most glamorous place to be. But I am here daily trying my very best to keep up with it all. I find this level of dedication is what it takes to keep things in order around here.
Each area has its struggles and I find in my area to be a few deep-rooted aggressive weeds that continue to agitate me. It can be difficult to continuously deal with issues in the garden. Especially the same ones over and over.
There are many times when I am ready to call it quits and tear it all down. Yet at the start of each season, I am rummaging through the seed catalogs, and coming up with a new improved plan of action. Feeling, that this will finally be the abundant year I see in my mind. Free from all the struggles and losses. But filled with the satisfaction of full baskets of veggies, flowers, and herbs.
The winter break between gardening seasons might be the culprit for this garden amnesia. Those few months of rest turn those end-of-the-season frustrations into hope come spring. Forgetting those long hot days bent over a garden bed plucking out more weeds than I can count. Or the many fruitless plants started by seed that we had to pull out mid-summer.
Garden Pests
This year, my greatest struggles have come in the form of a gopher who has so far annihilated a healthy garlic patch, eaten all my chives, and the only sign of him are the small holes he’s escaped through.
This area I am prepping today is where all my winter bulbs will be placed for springtime. Tulips, Irises, and Alliums will line my sunny fence come springtime. As I scoop the dirt and place each bulb with care.
Having A Clear Vision
As I began my work, a thought occurred to me.
It is our vision that keeps us moving forward, isn’t it? Some of us have this idea that one day we will arrive someplace far from the frustrations. From the failures and somehow have a thriving outdoor space free from it all. Though you may have that thriving outdoor space.
The simple truth is, is that all gardens are hard work. They all come equipped with different challenges and what seems easy for some is only a facade. Nothing was easy for that Instagram gardener. Nothing. With their picture-perfect garden. Those 10-plus years of work are on display in a single square on Instagram or a pin on Pinterest. It seems so carefree and thriving all on its own. If you’ve spent any length of time in a garden, then you know better.
Those years of developing that beautifully created space had likely at one point been a place of frustration. Of failures that were not “post” worthy. If we could only take a behind-the-scenes look maybe then we would understand that this is all part of it.
Neither a garden nor gardener starts without this hard work and willingness to try again. We will be beaten, plants will die. Our time will feel wasted. Yet we still remain in a heart of hope. With a clear vision of a space that lives only now in our minds.
This dedication comes from that vision. That hope that feels us when the warmth of the spring air arrives.
So, How Do We Deal With Garden Fails?
Well, we get back at it. That’s what. And we decide to change our perspective. Any gardener will have their fair share of stories. These current failures you might be experiencing now, are a part of your story as a gardener. There is something beautiful and unique about it. No one story is the same and each of us learns at different stages.
If we could turn those failures into lessons in our minds, we might remain in that hopeful posture that keeps us willing. It is true that each year the garden is different but familiar at the same time. While new frustrations and challenges will always be there. Remember the successes. The beauty and the feeling your garden has brought you on better days.
Our perspective is what is important in the garden and out of it. So the question really is; can you see these failures, as a lesson learned? A part of your story? Can we remain hopeful on hard days?
Keeping hold of that vision in our minds with a perspective of learning and not failing.
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