I love to garden and I love to post pictures of my lovely garden. When I take close-ups of the beans, sunflowers, roses and fig trees it really looks like they are just small glimpses of something much bigger. In reality though that is kind of it. The roses are next to the sunflower that is next to the fig tree that is next to the raspberry that is next to the blackberry and then we reached the fence. Apart from the roses there is only one of each. My kitchen garden is only three and a half square meters (37 square feet). In its whole the garden is about 7m x 13m.
When we bought the house I was creating high standards for what it should be like and got completely stuck since perfection was not achievable. I often suffer from this form of perfectionism - what is the point if it won't be perfect? Luckily for me my husband just took the shovel one day and created the kitchen garden in half an hour. I bought some seeds, put them in the grown and waited. After some time the seeds started to grow, I got all exited and then the snails ate half of the seedlings. That is it, I'll give up...
Somehow I managed to keep going and after three years I have really learned to enjoy it and make best of it without guilt. You loose some you get some and there always will be new seasons to try again. Last year I planted the tomatoes way too late, but luckily the autumn was warm and we got enough green tomatoes to make one small portion of green tomato jam that we ate with goat cheese and bread. This year I accidentally pull out the tomatoes thinking it was weed.
At this very moment only two small squashes are growing together with some silver beet. I'm hoping for squash blossoms to stuff and fry, will see if we get to that. I know that if I just had planned a little better ahead I could be harvesting my own green cabbage, Brussels sprout and more, but I didn't. Will try again next year.
In my dreams I am living like this Farmama. The truth is that even if I would have more land, I'm just not there yet, not even close. I hope that one day I am able to be more self sufficient but for now I will celebrate the small victories and share them with you :)
2 comments:
I love your description of small garden victories. Learning in a small space is perfect because it means your mistakes are small too. There are never any large upsetting mishaps, just little challenges to overcome. Happy gardening!
Every victory counts. And sometimes, it takes a while to realize that some of the things we classify as disappointments are really victories in disguise.
Don't let the role of Frustrated Perfectionist keep you down. You're doing great!
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