It is hard to imagine that's it has been almost two years since i wrote my first blog entry. I have to admit, I am a bit embarrassed and slightly disappointed that for the better part of this past year I have all but neglected both my garden and this blog. Initially, this project grew out of a partial sense that I was lacking direction in my life and so I decided that if I could find a way to grow vegetables from seeds then certainly I could find a way back onto my life path. (Don't worry, my absence is not indicative of some massive derailment, in fact, it was quite the opposite.) At the start, I also had a goal in mind, I wanted to be a bit more self sufficient, and what better way to do that than to grow your own food. To be quite honest, I never expected this project to extend past a few months and after a while, this became more of a task than the fun and learning experience I intended it to be. With every failed plant I grew a little more discouraged at the prospects of growing any vegetables at all, let alone becoming anything near self sufficient. However, I continued to water my plants and every now and then I would toss a few more seeds in the dirt. Along the way I definitely had a few successes. In particular, my yellow banana pepper plant has produced a number of peppers that I've used in omelets and salads. I also have been quite successful with both basil and thyme plants and they have both provided me with a bounty of each. But it was not until a few weeks ago that I truly felt like I had a accomplished something with my garden. This was when I walked outside to my patio and noticed that the flower box was a bit different. Small flowers were blooming! I couldn't believe how far I had come from this:
http://agardengrowsinlosangeles.blogspot.com/2010/08/not-giving-up-on-flowers.html
I never thought flowers would actually grow and I don't know if it just became a habit, but for some reason I continued watering the flower box for nearly two years. I'm glad I did because if there was ever an example of persistence paying off it is this. Needless to say, this has reinvigorated my interest in expanding my garden. But more importantly, my garden has served as a metaphor for some of the more difficult challenges in life. You've probably all heard it a million times that persistence and hard work pays off. But
how many of us truly practice this? When we embark on a
new project or goal most of us expect results and expect them fast. As I learned from this gardening experience, there is never a clear path and often times we don't get to where we want to go as quickly as we hope. When i reached the 1 year anniversary of my gardening project, it did not look the way I had envisioned it and a part of me felt like saying the heck with it but instead of totally abandoning the project I dialed back the time I was spending on my garden. Now that I've had some time away from what was a daily devotion, I feel a renewed interest in gardening. No, my garden still doesn't look the way I initially envisioned it, but that's not important. What's important is acknowledging that a garden, much like life itself, doesn't always go as planned. Sometimes we just need to step back for a bit, reassess a few things then jump right back in. With that said, here are some pictures of the current state of my garden. I hope to continue posting and writing on a more frequent basis!
This picture was taken about three weeks ago. You can begin to see the buds where the flowers would soon be coming in.
This past weekend, this is what my flower box looked like.
Here is another angle
Here is a closeup
This is the banana yellow pepper plant, which yes, I know that's a red pepper, but I'm still wondering how I managed that one.
Finally, here is some Thyme, mixed in with the bougainvillea tree.
