Sometimes, for whatever reason, a sickly relative to take care of or a difficult season dealing with pests or the ravages of the weather, it becomes challenging to keep up with the garden. More weeds seem to be thriving than you’d like, and the pathways seem overgrown. The greenhouse looks like a jungle and even your tools which stood to attention ready to serve you, seem to be lying around all over the place, listless and without a purpose. You begin to wonder, how do I restart my vegetable garden without burning out?
A challenging season of life…
Maybe like me, you’ve had a challenging season and you feel discouraged. This year, I’ve been battling pest pressure from slugs eating away so many of my young seedlings. Despite my many efforts to replace them as quickly as I could, the slugs seemed too many for me to deal with. I try very hard to use organic methods to remove them which meant that I would physically move them whenever I saw them- into a nearby hedge rather than use pesticides. In some (very few) instances I was forced to use ‘organic’ blue pellets over a critical growing week to salvage what I could of my seedlings before they were eaten. It was perhaps the most discouraged I’ve felt in a long time in caring for my garden- and this was after some pretty difficult dry and hot summers!
Let’s clear it all away…
In times like this, I want to use brute force, clear all the weeds down, dig over all the beds and remake the paths all in one go and in one day! In doing so, wipe away all the reminders of the tough season I’ve had and give myself a shiny new clean slate. That’s what most people recommend you do. But then I’m reminded of the tale of the sun and the wind, who got into an argument. They had seen a man walking along and wondered who between them could get the man to remove his coat and jacket first. The wind blew and blew, and all he managed to do was to get the man to tightly hold his coat on, closer and closer. He had failed, whilst the sun shone, gently at first and then more brightly. Soon the man removed his hat, then his coat and shirt. The gentle approach won
In praise of a gentle approach…
And so it is with re-starting a garden after a challenging time- a gentle approach wins. Simply taking each day and week as it comes along is a more graceful and gentler way to restart. Often I find and notice that the weeds were not as many as I thought, nor were the paths as badly overgrown. Recovering an already established garden is not as big a job as it may seem at first glance. A slow and steady approach to resetting it is the order of the day, focussing as always on all the good routines set up depending on the season.
The power of seasonal routines…
So depending on the time of year and season, in spring this might mean focussing on seed sowing, transplanting and composting or if it is winter time, this could include carrying out projects which make running more efficient during the summer months. The key thing is not to panic, and take up all the weeds in a big burst of energy, just to leave the ground bare and ready for more weeds to take root!
Instead, take it easy in restarting your vegetable garden. Focus more on routines, well established practices and rhythms so that you don’t burn out. For a vegetable garden, your tasks and routines change dramatically with the seasons, which is why I’ve got a blog just about this. Depending on the season, you need to prioritize different activities for success in restarting your vegetable garden and just like that, in a matter of weeks, the ‘garden’ starts to remove its outer layers, and slowly reveal its bountiful nature, with more produce and harvests coming along in a sustainable way.