FarmerGirl Report: Musings on Intention Vs. Expectation and the potential for a bit o mindless mayem
Three Things:
Three Things:
1. Gardening teaches you the difference between having an intention and having an expecation.
2. AFOG = Another F^&*in' Opportunity for Growth
3. Plot8 Update
1. Intention Vs. Expectation
I am the one who buys the seeds, tills the soil, waters (or not) the plants as they grow because it is my ~intention~ to raise certain vegetables and flowers. That is where my real power ends though. Between the time the seed goes into the soil and when I'm biting into my first homegrown tomato sandwich sometime in June, anything can happen. There could be a massive earthquake, a freak volcano eruption, a drought, a plague of locust, or I could be suddenly physically incapacitated (or waylaid by my cute cabana boy, Pablo in some heretofore unknown sexual perversion for extended periods, ahem.) The point is: I set an intention and follow a course of action to support that intention, but when it comes down to it, what happens between now and then is unknown - it is unknowable. Life happens, and Mother Nature has her own plans, and if I get a great crop of veggies and gorgeous displays of flowers? Well? I will be equally surprised and grateful that it aligned with my vision, but if I don't - then that is perfectly okay too. Life is exactly as it is, and I'm good with that. In the meantime, I am having an absolute blast learning something new every day and having this topic to share with so many interesting people. In my world, a bountiful crop is just a happy side benefit to discovering one more mechanism of how interconnected and interdependent we are. Its pretty freakin' cool.
(This is a picture of the massive tree that oversees our community garden. Isn't it perfect in its treeness? I just love it.)
2. The statement in Point 1 is based on the equanimity one develops AFTER losing 27 potted plants to premature planting. About four weeks ago I got impatient for the return of color in my backyard after our particularly long and hard winter and so filled up every available pot in my inventory and the front flower beds with a collection of interesting vining foliage and 2 flats of multi-colored impatiens. They lasted about a week before a hard frost killed off all the flowers. Deader-than-dead. This morning I woke early and set off for my local nursery to purchase their replacements, and as I was getting my cart full of flowers rung up, the nursery manager cocked his head and said seven very important words to me "Ya know? its gonna freeze tonight, right?" Uh... no: I did NOT know it was going to freeze. So when I came back to the house and spent six hours redoing all my work to refill the pots and hanging baskets, I was sure to leave them near the back door so they could be brought into the house for the night. (and they have, thanks.) Had I lost a SECOND planting of 27 pots worth (equating to about $75 total), I would have solved the problem by finding the nearest cinderblock wall and chucking all 27 against it violently. Dude. I'm not serene enough to do that shit THREE times, I tell ya.
3. Plot8: Saturday I got up at the ungodly, but genetically programmed hour of 4:30, and since I had a few hours to kill before the sun came up and the Home Depot opened, I decided to whip up a new gardening apron using an old tie-dyed curtain and a fancy teatowel. It turned out very well, and I am exceedingly pleased with it. My older apron had been a bit on the flimsy side to handle the vast number of gardening implements I asked it to tote around. This one works beautifully. By 10:30, I was donned in my apron and cowboy hat and pulling up to the plot with a backseat full of peatmoss, compost and top soil to FINALLY finish filling the beds (this was about the fourth? such trip this season to get everything to acceptable levels. Helloooo SPENDY.)
Mom was waiting for me, and for the next three hours or so watered and weeded and worked our way through the to-do list to prep the garden for next week's arrival of the baby plants. It involved turning over the tomato/pepper beds of their winter rye I had planted as a cover crop (providing a lovely layer of green fertilizer and keeping the weeds down). I also finished turning over the new non-raised bed areas and getting the red clay to transform itself into something dark and luscious with the amendments I hauled in. Everything is set to get our three salsa beds up and running in short order next Saturday. We are even going to be conducting a scientific experiment. Mom bought a small bottle of organic fish emulsion liquid fertilizer at a recent garden show that promised to make a difference in vegetable yields, so we are going to designate one of the three identical smaller beds as the experiment and use the other two as controls and not add any fertilizer to see if we can see a difference. (This is part of the cool investigative and educational aspects of gardening that I am just completely geeking over.)
The peas that were planted on Day 1 are up to about eight leaves high, and starting to sprout tendrils. We are expecting to be harvesting the first week of June for those. The lettuce plants are still too small for me to thin yet, so I'm going to give them another week. same with the carrots. We've got about an 80% sprouting rate on the 12 potato plants, so I'm fairly happy with that. (win some/lose some - its all just news to me.) and the onions are growing like weeds. I might even start harvesting some as green onions in the next few weeks.
After the salsa beds are all planted out, the next thing on the docket will be the two "three sister" beds of interplanted corn, pole beans and squash/pumpkins. All my books admonish me to NOT start the corn too early because if the soil is too cold, the seed will rot. The corn gets planted first, then when its about four inches high, the beans get planted alongside. As the corn grows it will support the vining beans. Then the squash and pumpkin will be planted on the ends of the beds and their large, wide leaves will provide shade to the soil and weed protection for the entire bed. (How cool is THAT for a winning combination?? I swear I just get giddy when I think of how amazing this Native American developed system is!) Besides: CORN!! I'M PLANTING CORN! haha. You see how I did not say ~I'm GETTING corn?? ~ This refers back to Point 1 above: Having an Intention and having an Expectation are two completely different things. The process is what gets me high in this scenario. But if I end up with a few ears of edible corn sometime this summer? well, hell: that would be just awesome too, you betcha. If not: corn is cheap and tasty at the farmers' market. Support your local farmers!
There's Mom planting the narrow flower boxes with a variety of pollinating insect-attracting flowers. they'll get interspersed among the beds.
So. yeah. Its been a lot of work to get the garden ready for "show time", but man: do I love it. Love it love it love it. I honestly think the scribbled notes to myself of things to do in my little patch of dirt is the only thing that kept me sane after this crazy-ass week at work.
There's just no therapy like hard physical labor and smudges of dirt on your nose.
So: until next time, kids: Stick a seed in the dirt and see what happens.
Three Things:
1. Gardening teaches you the difference between having an intention and having an expecation.
2. AFOG = Another F^&*in' Opportunity for Growth
3. Plot8 Update
1. Intention Vs. Expectation
I am the one who buys the seeds, tills the soil, waters (or not) the plants as they grow because it is my ~intention~ to raise certain vegetables and flowers. That is where my real power ends though. Between the time the seed goes into the soil and when I'm biting into my first homegrown tomato sandwich sometime in June, anything can happen. There could be a massive earthquake, a freak volcano eruption, a drought, a plague of locust, or I could be suddenly physically incapacitated (or waylaid by my cute cabana boy, Pablo in some heretofore unknown sexual perversion for extended periods, ahem.) The point is: I set an intention and follow a course of action to support that intention, but when it comes down to it, what happens between now and then is unknown - it is unknowable. Life happens, and Mother Nature has her own plans, and if I get a great crop of veggies and gorgeous displays of flowers? Well? I will be equally surprised and grateful that it aligned with my vision, but if I don't - then that is perfectly okay too. Life is exactly as it is, and I'm good with that. In the meantime, I am having an absolute blast learning something new every day and having this topic to share with so many interesting people. In my world, a bountiful crop is just a happy side benefit to discovering one more mechanism of how interconnected and interdependent we are. Its pretty freakin' cool.
(This is a picture of the massive tree that oversees our community garden. Isn't it perfect in its treeness? I just love it.)
2. The statement in Point 1 is based on the equanimity one develops AFTER losing 27 potted plants to premature planting. About four weeks ago I got impatient for the return of color in my backyard after our particularly long and hard winter and so filled up every available pot in my inventory and the front flower beds with a collection of interesting vining foliage and 2 flats of multi-colored impatiens. They lasted about a week before a hard frost killed off all the flowers. Deader-than-dead. This morning I woke early and set off for my local nursery to purchase their replacements, and as I was getting my cart full of flowers rung up, the nursery manager cocked his head and said seven very important words to me "Ya know? its gonna freeze tonight, right?" Uh... no: I did NOT know it was going to freeze. So when I came back to the house and spent six hours redoing all my work to refill the pots and hanging baskets, I was sure to leave them near the back door so they could be brought into the house for the night. (and they have, thanks.) Had I lost a SECOND planting of 27 pots worth (equating to about $75 total), I would have solved the problem by finding the nearest cinderblock wall and chucking all 27 against it violently. Dude. I'm not serene enough to do that shit THREE times, I tell ya.
3. Plot8: Saturday I got up at the ungodly, but genetically programmed hour of 4:30, and since I had a few hours to kill before the sun came up and the Home Depot opened, I decided to whip up a new gardening apron using an old tie-dyed curtain and a fancy teatowel. It turned out very well, and I am exceedingly pleased with it. My older apron had been a bit on the flimsy side to handle the vast number of gardening implements I asked it to tote around. This one works beautifully. By 10:30, I was donned in my apron and cowboy hat and pulling up to the plot with a backseat full of peatmoss, compost and top soil to FINALLY finish filling the beds (this was about the fourth? such trip this season to get everything to acceptable levels. Helloooo SPENDY.)
Mom was waiting for me, and for the next three hours or so watered and weeded and worked our way through the to-do list to prep the garden for next week's arrival of the baby plants. It involved turning over the tomato/pepper beds of their winter rye I had planted as a cover crop (providing a lovely layer of green fertilizer and keeping the weeds down). I also finished turning over the new non-raised bed areas and getting the red clay to transform itself into something dark and luscious with the amendments I hauled in. Everything is set to get our three salsa beds up and running in short order next Saturday. We are even going to be conducting a scientific experiment. Mom bought a small bottle of organic fish emulsion liquid fertilizer at a recent garden show that promised to make a difference in vegetable yields, so we are going to designate one of the three identical smaller beds as the experiment and use the other two as controls and not add any fertilizer to see if we can see a difference. (This is part of the cool investigative and educational aspects of gardening that I am just completely geeking over.)
The peas that were planted on Day 1 are up to about eight leaves high, and starting to sprout tendrils. We are expecting to be harvesting the first week of June for those. The lettuce plants are still too small for me to thin yet, so I'm going to give them another week. same with the carrots. We've got about an 80% sprouting rate on the 12 potato plants, so I'm fairly happy with that. (win some/lose some - its all just news to me.) and the onions are growing like weeds. I might even start harvesting some as green onions in the next few weeks.
After the salsa beds are all planted out, the next thing on the docket will be the two "three sister" beds of interplanted corn, pole beans and squash/pumpkins. All my books admonish me to NOT start the corn too early because if the soil is too cold, the seed will rot. The corn gets planted first, then when its about four inches high, the beans get planted alongside. As the corn grows it will support the vining beans. Then the squash and pumpkin will be planted on the ends of the beds and their large, wide leaves will provide shade to the soil and weed protection for the entire bed. (How cool is THAT for a winning combination?? I swear I just get giddy when I think of how amazing this Native American developed system is!) Besides: CORN!! I'M PLANTING CORN! haha. You see how I did not say ~I'm GETTING corn?? ~ This refers back to Point 1 above: Having an Intention and having an Expectation are two completely different things. The process is what gets me high in this scenario. But if I end up with a few ears of edible corn sometime this summer? well, hell: that would be just awesome too, you betcha. If not: corn is cheap and tasty at the farmers' market. Support your local farmers!
There's Mom planting the narrow flower boxes with a variety of pollinating insect-attracting flowers. they'll get interspersed among the beds.
So. yeah. Its been a lot of work to get the garden ready for "show time", but man: do I love it. Love it love it love it. I honestly think the scribbled notes to myself of things to do in my little patch of dirt is the only thing that kept me sane after this crazy-ass week at work.
There's just no therapy like hard physical labor and smudges of dirt on your nose.
So: until next time, kids: Stick a seed in the dirt and see what happens.