Some Failures

I think one lesson in learning about gardening is learning to be amiable towards your failures.   They are a regular and normal part of life, and perhaps something to get used to.   Gardening for me is partly about learning to let go of perfection and control.   A garden is a process, not a product.   No matter how much hard, diligent work you put in, or how much you plan for, failure and success will both be guaranteed to arrive on your doorstep.   Especially if the garden is part of your overall life - just as with the plants, there will be a need to shift energy at different times, even if that could mean losing opportunities.  Energy is finite - and no matter how much one wants full yield and harvest, that desire has to be balanced with other things - for me, friends, lover, house, health, work and my own writing.   I am learning to cut my losses - so the eggplant never really made it off the ground, or late blight has crisped and browned the tomatoes - so I've been working on running, writing, starting a new job, moving in a new fridge (to store all our produce - squeeee!).



Also, it's easy to let the failures overshadow the successes.   It's one reason for planting many different crops.   Still, I look forward to the day when I can have a whole watermelon patch - just because I can.


Failures....  Late blight has taken and stripped down the tomatoes (although I am still getting an OK crop, I'm trying to think about how to rotate crops for next year - we have such limited sunny space I'm not sure exactly how to do it!)
Cucumbers went in late and also look wilted and brown - we got a few, but not in enough numbers to pickle.
Fall sprouts (carrots/lettuce) - somehow the drip irrigation we installed in the back never really watered enough, and those seeds never sprouted.   It feels like the window of opportunity is gone  - now that the nights are often cold and day length is shorter.

Successes:  Still got a fairly decent tomato crop.    Tons of jalapenos (green) plus some cayenne and habenero peppers.
Enough greens to can pickled greens (!)
an actual successful mature squash plant and eggplant (the one I left outside in the cold never really succeeded, but the one I nursed back to health from the front porch mites produced well!)
raspberries and strawberries, garlic and onions, lettuce, arugula, napa cabbage in the spring.
A steady supply of beans (although next year I'm bringing back the bean teepee, 'cause I want enough beans to pickle!).

Right now, I'm missing having fresh lettuce from the yard.  But I'm thinking ahead, and in 30 days the frost will certainly be here.   Lettuce can survive cold and a light frost, but with the limited daylight in the back yard, everything grows slowly.

Even with additions of fertilizer and compost, everything in the yard looks tired by this time of year.   The plants have pushed all their resources into blooming and creating fruits and seeds - and they are just about ready to let go.   Fall is arriving, and with it my seasonal urge to roast chickens and make stews, cook soups and root vegetables.   By now this rhythm is firmly established, and I look forward to the homey comfort of it already.