#dealingwithfailure

WEEKEND UPDATE

Things are certainly happening.

I've been in a weird mindset about gardening lately. I have tried to step outside of my own expectations to make the experience less anxiety inducing. I haven't totally scrapped my plan for the summer, though many parts are inaccurate now considering the failures I've had in starting seeds.

I started out the weekend giving in to an urge I hadn't seen coming, and purchased 60 bucks of annual flowers from a local nursery. I'm still figuring out just how often to water them, but I'm excited to see what it looks like a few months.

Then I got around to transplanting my brassicas. They are, rather sad looking. It was time to transplant, both in terms of my patience (i started both in late February/early March) and my big plan. After spending most of the week in various stages of grief, I decided to transplant them anyway. If they grow, they grow. If not, it's time to move on to something else.

48 hours later and here is that something else. I put onion seeds in the brassica beds (they were originally going to go in after the brussels came out, a gamble any way you look at it), and am about to start seeds for eggplant to take up the other half.

Speaking of starting seeds, I learned the hard way that my seedling starting/care setup wasn't working. Not to mention the ants that were nesting in my basil, things just weren't right (I had no idea the young roots would grow THROUGH the egg carton, poor things got decapitated when I up potted them). Having made up my mind to move on to other crops, I realized quite suddenly I would need to start those seeds, and need their set up to actually yknow, work.

I've made a whole new setup! My anger drive saw me whip this up on the fly in my shed. Now I can adjust the height of the lights readily, and germination and growing have separate spaces.

Random note, the carrots finally germinated (2 weeks late), so that's cool. I'm less worried about getting them out of the ground in time for the strawberries because the strawberries aren't doing very well (same sitch as the brassicas).

There are moments in life when the weight of fear, anxiety, disappointment, and stress can feel unbearable.  Maybe you’ve worked hard toward your goals only to face failure after failure. Perhaps worry about your future keeps your mind restless at night, or the pressure of responsibilities has left your body exhausted and emotionally drained. In seasons like these, giving up can begin to feel…