Hey friends! How are you, and if you are growing a garden this summer, how’s that going? I’m feeling better than I have in a long time, thanks truly for asking, and my gardens are surprising me daily with their resilience and beauty. Nothing is perfect. Not life, not my tomatoes, certainly not my fruit trees; but all of it is more miraculous and more deeply satisfying than I sometimes dare to dream.
The other day I was giving some thought to late summer best practices in the garden. I have the immense pleasure and privilege of guiding Jessica through her own growing adventures, though she needs me less and less these days, and I want very much to save her from the common overwhelm gardeners tend to experience this time of year. So I distilled my thoughts into five points and readied them for sending.
As I read over my advices, it occured to me that all the wisdom I would hope to share with a fellow gardener also applies neatly and unironically to just people. Self care, as it turns out, looks a lot like gardening.
We are tending things, after all. We are tending our relationships and our health, both physical and emotional. We are tending our communities and careers and more. Cultivating, just like we do outside. Planting new seeds some days, watering, fertilizing, pulling weeds, pruning, rearranging. I love the reminders that human beings are not machines; that we have different and shifting needs day to day, just like the garden does.
Let’s go.
ONE: Water Deeply. Insted of sprinkling water on just the surface of the soil, water the roots deeply and gently. Do it in the evening if possible, when the temperatures have been dangerously hot, so your plants can spend the nighttime moving that moisture around and greet the new day refreshed. Then water again the next day if needed. Without overwatering, just make sure your plants are fully hydrated. Similarly, if you are in a hard season of life, I think going deep on a regular basis with what refreshes you is important. Read scripture if that’s precious to you. Read anything that centers and cools you on a cellular level. Choose to actually read instead of scroll the internet. Reach for the dopamine that counts, is what I try hard to remember. Spend meaningful amounts of time with people who help you feel as close to heaven as possible. Do work that is uniquely satisfying, all the way to your roots. Shun the cheap, easy, surface stuff. It will train your roots too close to what will kill them.
TWO: FEED. Take time in August to feed your plants, especially your vegtables. All that deep watering can leach the soil of good nutrients, and growing and producing food takes lots of energy. I add gorgeous black farm compost between and among my plants all throughout the growing season. I also feed myself well, too, especially in hard times. Not just comfort food, but all the things that I know will actually help my mind and body cope wth whatever is going on. Nutrition keeps us strong and resilient when we are overtaxed, and the right foods and supplements keep us productive.
THREE: HARVEST & PRUNE CONSTANTLY. It’s crazy to me how easy it is to forget to collect the literal fruits of our labor. The hours and days can pass so quickly, and maintenance often seems more important. But lifiting tomatoes from the vine or cutting a joyful bouquet of flowers is not just our prize; it’s also a wonderful way to lighten the load on our plants. Make it a regualar habit to carry a basket and snips, walking around your garden cutting off fruits and vegetables, pruning suckers, topping leggy vines, and deadheading flowers. Pruning and trimming makes everything look so fresh and well kept, and it returns a shocking amount of energy to the plant rather than signaling that its life cycle has been completed. Does this resonate in other parts of your life? To me it does. I want to fully enjoy the gifts given to me, first of all, leaving nothing to rot on the vine. I want to see clearly what is being offered, day after day, every season, and accept those gifts joyfully! I also want to prune away what is finished. Remove parts of me or my routine that no longer serve the greater vision, so all that valuable energy can be reinvested. This part can be hard, because once I find a comfortable routine I am unlikely to vver off course, ha! But I have found it useful to reevaluate constantly to make sure I am choosing habits wisely, ones that serve me and my family well. Our life cycles, just as in the garden, can be either stunted or lengthened by our habits. I vote for continued beauty and abundance.
FOUR: LOOK FOR BLANK SPACE. Naturally, for a myriad of reasons, some gardens have more blank space than others. Some years do, too, some schedules and seasons. That’s natural. In my new “Summer Garden” as I have named her, there is still oodles of available growing space, mostly because back in April I carved out the beds and planted kind of in a rush. You can see all the grass between the skinny rows, below. It’s year one here, so I have spent lots of time just watching and learning her. I see gaps and opportunities, and I may still sneak in a few fast growing fall crops. In other gardens here at the farm, blank space is harder to spot, and it’s so fun to find ways to freshen up a view you’ve grown used to. The point is to look for openings and opportunities. Protect them then press them into service. Be on watch for what your imagination craves, both in your garden and in your life, and remember that you are the gardener. If you want something, figure out how to grow it. Plant the seeds. Bring it to fruition. Blank space is such a gift.
FIVE: STAY ENGAGED. August in Oklahoma can be challenging, but it’s far from the end of the season. And most years, just when you think you cannot sweat through one more weed pulling chore or cry over one more grasshopper or haul the thousand pound water hose any more, the weather shifts, just enough. A new flush of tomato blossoms appears. The grass softens under a surprise rainfall. The lettuce grows sweet and bright again, and we rememeber, just like we did last August, that it was just a little while that we had to suffer. Hard times always end. Refreshment always comes. And most importantly, I try to remember that no matter what is happening in August, it is everything I dream of and long for in February. Whatever life difficulty and uphill effort is folded into dreams come true, they are still immeasurable blessings. Don’t wish any of it away, not one detail. Stay awake and enganged for it all. It will make you a better gardener, and it will set your garden far apart from what it would have been otherwise.
This is what I am sharing with my beautiful Jessica, and it’s what I would share with you if you came to my garden to chat and maybe get a pep talk. It’s also what I need to hear myself sometimes, when the endurance of a hard season slows me to a crawl.
Water your roots deeply. Feed yourself well. Collect all the gifts available to you then edit ruthlessly the parts that are dead. Look for blank space to grow new beauty. And, at all costs, stay awake and engaged.
