How It’s Growing: An Update From the Garden

I had big plans for the garden this year. After months of starting seeds, tending to my precious seedlings and dreaming about the harvest to come, I was looking forward to watching everything I’d planted finally take off.

And then it rained. And rained. And rained.

What followed was not quite the growing season I had envisioned. So here’s a little look at our garden this year: the changes we made, what’s growing well, what’s struggling and what this unexpected season has been teaching me along the way.

What We Changed This Year

One of the first changes we made to the garden was mulching all of our in-ground beds with dried leaves and I must say, this has made quite the difference in both the soil’s moisture retention and our ability to keep up with weeding. I’ve only needed to water our in-ground garden a handful of times this summer and there are not nearly as many weeds as there usually are. And because the soil is moist, when weeds do decide to pop up, I find them much easier to pull out. Overall, the mulch has been a great addition to our garden and we plan to top off all the beds with more mulch in the fall.

Last year, deer and even moose have found their way into our garden and helped themselves to everything from beet greens to squash blossoms. So early on in the season, we knew we needed to upgrade the fencing around our garden to something more secure. We replaced the fence posts with taller 4×4 posts and strung bistro lights around the tops of them at a 7′ height and I must say, this has worked marvelously. The party lights have been an incredibly effective and economical way to deter our “deer” neighbors from visiting and have made the whole backyard feel a bit more magical.

In years past, our squash plants have taken over our garden, so this year we installed two cattle panel arches in the hopes we could encourage our small sugar pumpkins and acorn squashes to grow vertically. Initially, I used twine to tie the vines to the cattle panels in an effort to train them to grow up the panels, but the plants didn’t seem to love it and this method may have actually stunted their growth. Over the last few weeks I have just been weaving them in and out of the panels as the vines grow longer, and the plants seem much healthier and happier. I am not sure if the vines will make it all the way to the top of the cattle panels this year, but the arches are definitely something we will keep and use for squashes or other vining varieties in the future.

One of the most surprising, yet impactful changes we made to our garden this year was to repurpose panels from an old cedar garage door and turn them into one more large and three small raised beds around our patio’s perimeter. We had this project in the back of our minds for a few years, but we almost didn’t try it because we weren’t sure if it would actually work to build raised beds from old garage doors. But it did and and we absolutely love how they turned out. Not only have they given us more space to grow herbs and veggies, but they have made our entire patio feel like a garden oasis. They have helped to soften the expanse of concrete pavers and along with some of the simple swaps we made to our patio furniture, have created an intimate, intentional and inviting space that we get to both enjoy and share with others.

Learning to Let Things “Grow”

Weather-wise, this has been a difficult year for our garden. Early on in the season, we had an exceptional amount of rain – so much so our little pond became a lake and we had an impressive river running through our property. We were thankful we could enjoy our newfound “water front” property from afar, and we were grateful the water didn’t make its way into our basement or cause other significant damage. But the sheer quantity of moisture so early on in this season severely stunted the growth of everything we had planted, especially in our in-ground garden.

After months of caring for my little seedlings, encouraged by their growth and excited for the prospect of an abundant harvest, I was devastated to see them drowning, leaves yellowing and wilting from the constant downpour. I wondered if I could have done things differently. Should I have waited a few more weeks to plant things out? Was there something I could do to shelter my little seedlings? As I watched my phone light up with rainfall warnings, I began to wonder if I was simply not cut out for gardening. I started to wallow in frustration, watching my seedlings die.

But the remarkable thing is that those same seedlings—the ones I was sure would not make it—started to recover.

Of course, not everything survived. The sunflower and green bean seeds we planted drowned in the soggy soil and our squash, pumpkins and in-ground tomatoes are about a month behind where they would usually be. I’m not sure if we will get a harvest from these plants before frost, but they are ALIVE! Our vining tomatoes have gone from spindly to sprawling, with an abundance of cherry tomatoes on their way. And our tomatillos, whose long stems whipped around in the wind and rain to the point of breaking, have proven themselves to be our most resilient plants yet and are on their way to producing a bountiful harvest.

We’ve also been able to harvest so many herbs, leafy greens and even flowers this season. Every time I harvest fresh herbs for a dish I’m cooking, fresh greens for a salad or garnish, or flowers for an arrangement, I feel overwhelmingly grateful for the blessing and simple joy of getting to do so. This is the first year I’ve been able to successfully grow peppers as well, which is a huge milestone in my book. When I harvested our first pepperoncini, I proudly displayed it on our countertop for a few days because I was just so darn excited.

More Than a Harvest

Watching our little seedlings recover from the rain, I learned that there are some things I can control, but there are some things I cannot. I can plan. I can plant. I can tend to and cultivate. But I do not ultimately make a seed grow. I cannot control the rain, nor whether or not my seedlings will produce, but in the face of unexpected challenges or circumstances beyond my control, I do have a choice.

Over the years, there have been a few books I find I return to time and time again. One of those books is Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, where he shares a simple, but profound insight: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Perhaps one of the greatest fruits we can harvest from our gardens isn’t actually edible after all. Perhaps its not found hanging on the branches of tomato plants or nestled between herbs and greens. Perhaps it’s found in that space between the things we can control and the things we can’t. Will we choose to be grateful for the things that are thriving? Will we choose to not become embittered or resentful by the things that aren’t? Will we still choose joy?

Truthfully, I don’t know how this year’s harvest will turn out. I don’t know whether I will get to make pie with our own pumpkins or can homemade salsa using our own tomatoes, but I’m learning to let go of what I cannot control and to choose joy regardless of the outcome. Rather than dwelling on what should have been, what went wrong, or what is lacking, I’m learning to choose joy and gratitude for the gifts right in front of me: fresh herbs for dinner, cut flowers for the table, thriving tomatillos and a little slice of paradise in our own backyard.

And perhaps that is the greatest harvest of all: not simply what grows in our gardens, but what grows in us as we learn and grow alongside them.