Report From PIA – October 24
This is what I did in my garden today: I gathered all of the piles of brown peony foliage that I cut out of the lake-side perennial bed yesterday, and loaded them into the garden cart. Then I pulled the cart up to the brush pile and dumped it. Oh… I also put the cart back next to the garden shed.
Total time spent in the garden? Twenty minutes, if I’m being generous.
Clearly there are times when I need to spend several hours in the garden, but I’m a big believer of doing what you can, when you can. Many short bursts of gardening can add up to a well-tended garden.
I try to take this elsewhere as well. If I thought I needed to write eight hours a day, five days a week, I’d give up and never write at all. If I allow myself to write every day, without imposing a set amount that needs to be accomplished, those daily efforts accumulate, and articles and books get written.
Of course I’m perfectly able to be impatient and want it all now. Knowing that I can’t possibly accomplish such miracles overnight, I nevertheless want a lush garden, a finished book, a full calendar of speaking gigs and…well, you get the picture. In order to complete this wish list I’d need to get that cloning thing going and have at least six of me. Until then, I need to be patient with what I can do.
Gardens are tended one cartload at a time, and lives are built step-by-step, working as we can.
Gardens are not made instantly... when you first put the plants in, it doesn't look like much.
The plants start to grow...and the gardener starts to weed.
At the end of the first season the bed is looking alright, but not great.
and at the end of the second year, the garden is looking even better. There is not instant garden, and bit by bit, the bed is tended, and it grows.
