Eating an elephant

Eating an elephant

I believe we gardeners have lofty, imagined goals for ourselves, our lives, our gardens. It is an act of optimism to plant a garden! But they say you eat an elephant one bite at a time.

I know for myself, sometimes my very goals, the hopefulness of my dreams, can be what cripple me. I hold up my little patch of sandy soil with yet another failed crop, next to my visions of abundant, edible paradise and I feel thrown. I don’t know how I am ever going to get there. But lately I have been working at changing the way I think about these lacklustre results.

I sowed a whole two square metres of mixed greens a month ago, purple dragon rocket, speckled trout lettuce, english spinach. I envisioned a thick carpet of lush green salad, ready for repeated picking, for us, for our friends, to sell! Plus it would shade the beautiful rich earth under it. What I actually got was about 40% coverage of tiny seedlings.

“Ok, that I can cope with,” I thought. Then my chickens got into the garden. 

Bye bye seedlings! 

I guess my chickens thought it was a buffet banquet! I was so frustrated. But then I spotted 3 tiny, under-developed seedlings. Two of spinach, one of rocket. Instead of being completely disappointed, do you know what my thought was?

“Hooray! I can save seed from these and have more than I sowed in the first place!”

So I mulched my seedlings, I gave them a good watering, I kicked the chickens out of the garden and I pottered happily, sowing a bit more seed in other areas.

So I am upping my optimism levels. I’m giving an acknowledging nod to my glorious dreams and saying

“Yes, one day, but right now, I’m celebrating the small victories and pressing on. 

One bite at a time.”