Garden Fail- guest post from Mama

Our garden this year was, well, was NOT.  Lack of energy and man power, lack of an effective spring tilling, lack of a raised bed, lack of appropriate research into seed choices...all conspired against us to produce nothing but a harvest of tomatoes and raspberries.  Quite a sad state of affairs, after last year's plethora of goodness in the form of basil, tomatoes, raspberries, corn, string beans, snap peas, carrots, lettuce, and strawberries.  Ah, well.  This year did make for a nice harvest of weeds, so at least something was growing.

I was feeling quite sad about it, really, until I ran across this lovely thought from Amanda Soule.  Though her garden is practically farm-sized, and her harvests do a large part to supply her family of seven with food for the winter, I was instantly consoled by her beautiful thoughts on gardening failure.

"...Each year that I've gardened has shown me once again how very different each year is from the last. I'm assured that it will keep the act interesting in the years and decades to come - with no two gardens ever looking the same. I am reminded that it isn't a formulaic mathematical process after all - but rather a dance. A dance with weather, landscape, time, health and energy all factoring in to creating something together."

Humbling words, no?

And one unexpected benefit of missing out on our own garden has been a renewed joy in finding the plethora of life growing in our neighborhood.  Our neighbors have been extremely generous with their extra produce and flowers, and Elsie has moved on from picking berries to picking other growing things...like flowers, sticks, and pine cones.  She's become quite the leaf connoisseur, bringing home beautiful handfuls at a time for various craft projects.  Luckily, our wonderful neighbors Lila Puppy and Heather have let us tag along on their walks...Lila has a nack for finding all the best, most colorful trees in the neighborhood!