We have lived in our home for over seven years. This was going to be our temporary, short term residence as we focused on establishing our company. As our business grew and we added children to our home we lacked time to dedicate to various home improvement tasks. We told ourselves that we wanted to focus what we did do on “re-sell”. I look back and though I wish we would have started sooner; I am grateful that we did not as my ideas for our home and yard as a non-mother are now vastly different.
It has only been somewhat recently that I have let go of my previous conceptions and decided to formally embrace my home and make it uniquely ours. This summer I have been focusing heavily on our yard and garden. I decided that I wanted a vegetable garden and my husband embraced the idea of having our yard produce food for our little brood. I wish I took recent before pictures, but alas I didn’t. I do, however, have pictures of the property when we first bought the house.
We started our project rather late, as the weather was not cooperating to say the least, but it has started and I am thrilled. I keep telling myself that it’s ok we started late, because this is an establishing year for us. Next year we will be better prepared and with the baby being (gasp a toddler) I’d like to think I would have a little more time to work on it as well.
Something that was rather significant for me personally as part of my “achieve my own harmony” piece; throughout my life I have struggled with this notion of perfection. To the point that I prevented myself from moving forward on something, because I didn’t feel it would be good enough. The result of this has been a long list of half completed projects or projects that never took flight.
I am actively working to break this life pattern. For starters I want to be a better example for my daughter and hopefully allow her the opportunity to live her life in a manner where she strives for her desires but doesn’t get caught up in this perfection idea. I also want to be happier than I have been and give myself that leverage to be creative again as I once was and know that I can be again. In doing so; this garden has played a big role in breaking that cycle. When I first thought of our landscaping I would go into a mood of what made sense to me at the time. First- stain the fence, Second- create beds, Third- select plants that would work well together, etc. The trouble with that is we have a lot of fence and the cost of the stain alone was a few thousand and by the time I made a bed, before I bought plants there were weeds already.
Today, I stand before you and declare my method of present gardening, by a plant I like- dig a hole and put it in the ground. While this seems rather rudimentary; I’ve accomplished more in our yard in the last month than I have in the last 7 years. Weeds still present a problem, but I’m working on it.
I re-discovered a sense of joy working in the dirt and seeing my plants thrive. What plants do you love and what do you love about your garden space?