Complimentary Blueberry Juice

Anyone who has ever grown something or cared for a living thing (of the plant or animal variety) has inevitably had some demoralizing times.

On one end of the spectrum, there’s the “nothing you can do about it” category which includes things like weather or the completely unexpected. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the “human comedy of errors” channel, where every action taken turned out to be the wrong play.

Either way, it hurts most in the middle of the season when mental health starts taking a hit. Repeated long hours and daily problem solving wears anyone down. Add to the mix that something isn’t going well or outright failing and you know that it was your actions (or lack thereof) that did it doesn’t help.

The key is in realizing the result was baked into the soil cake way before mid-season arrived.

Taking the observations and lessons learned and move forward with a better plan next season isn’t all you can do. You can also remember there were dozens of wins and a couple digits of losses. Agriculture is not a neat formula, and Nature will humble you.

Sometimes it’s about management, timing, or planning. Those things can be adjusted. Of course we can learn from our mistakes, but getting better at the craft of horticulture is also about repeating successes. It’s helpful to remember that not everything that gets attempted works.

Growing living things is a continuous practice. The exciting part is in getting to try again.

But before next season starts, we have to finish the one we have.

Stay in there!

Graham