REAL Life Gardening

This is what my garden looks like today.  After being mighty busy with out of town company and preparing for and celebrating the graduation of our son Ian,  I've been largely out of the garden for 10 days.  I seeded it a few weeks ago, watered it here and there and essentially left it to germinate. My, my, my...  germinate it did, but so did the weeds!  It appears that I have a fair bit of work ahead of me with my new diamond shuffle garden hoe.  Let's hope it makes light work of those darn weeds!   Can you (barely) see the corn seedling in the middle of the upper photo?  Wow, it doesn't stand a chance with those weeds competing for moisture and nutrients.

I've been gardening for quite a long time, through 5 children, many moves and lots of extenuating circumstances.  One thing I know with absolute certainty is that life is full of sudden ups and downs.  The highs and lows of life can drastically change our days without any advance warning.  I've come to realize (and embrace) the fact that there will always be an extenuating circumstance of sorts to try and garden through (pregnancy, nursing babies, busy toddlers, elder care, nursing an injured or ill loved one, working overtime or out of town, unexpected travel, sickness or surgery, long term house guests, financial hardship, etc.).  If we plan our gardens well, so that they are not as hard to maintain in tough times, we stand a fighting chance of actually reaching a successful harvest.  Gardening isn't perfect or pretty all of the time.  It's hard work and often inconvenient.  Ripe produce waits for no man (or woman!).

So, we trudge on, doing the best we possibly can with what we've got at the moment.  Seems we are always short on something, be it time, money or labor.  No matter, we keep going and do the best we can do - and sometimes that means tossing a plan and making do with less than ideal.   We've been ridiculously short on time these past 10 days, so the weeds you see are the direct result of that.   I see blisters in my future...  and a stiff, sore back.... but a happy heart, glad for plants growing that will hopefully fill our table, pantry and freezer with healthy food in the not so distant future!