Garden Fail | Seedlings Sprinkled On The Patio
Just about any project has some mistakes and missteps along the way, and our garden proves no different (time and again). Here’s another little hiccup in our adventures growing a little bit of our food to fill our table.
We’ve had gorgeous weather since I returned from California a week ago, and I thought I was in the clear to plant the little seedlings in our “big kid” garden. As happens with gardens and so many things in life, not all went exactly as planned…
Under sunny skies, I carried my trays of seedlings down the stairs from the bright bedroom in which they live in our house. I opened the back door to the patio to bring them outside. Being a responsible adult, I tried to close the door behind me and… dropped the entire tray of seedlings all over the ground.
Not ideal.
Half of the seedlings broke or fell apart entirely. A few of them seemed salvageable, though we will see if they actually grow. I planted them in the raised beds a few days ago. They have yet to really “take” but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they just need a little extra time to recover from their “injuries”.
One of the containers that became a complete loss held tomatoes. Truth be told, I don’t love tomatoes so I wasn’t all that sad to see them go. Little J loves tomatoes though, so maybe I should be a bit more thoughtful about how my faux pas makes others feel and not just focus on myself. We may end up buying starter plants from a local nursery to replace some of the seedlings I killed.
After several weeks of diligent care helping the little things grow, it’s pretty disappointing to watch it all go down (literally) in a matter of seconds. But that’s kind of how gardening (and life) go sometimes.
I don’t have a ton of disposable time (as you might imagine with two kids, a corporate job and a family schedule to manage). I’m sure you can relate. I try pretty hard not to commit or allocate my time to things that don’t bring me a lot of joy or add value to my life.
When I drop a full tray of seedlings all over our back patio, I have to remind myself that sometimes the joy is in the process and not just the outcome. All things require learning curves (I’m far from a master gardener or homesteader), and every journey in life includes mistakes and missteps along the way.
Duh, right? But hard to accept when so many hours ended up becoming a pile of dirt on my back patio.
So what’s my point in all this? If you’re starting a garden, or trying to compost, or doing anything new, don’t forget that you’re probably going to have failures and setbacks along the way. In just about anything in life, we have some wins, some false starts, some big leaps, and some hiccups throughout the journey.
Trust the process and enjoy the journey; I’m right there with you. 🙂
