a hard year on the garden

About a year ago, my biggest (75% of my annual income) client retired without notice. What ensued was what I can only call “The Year of Work.” When I wasn’t working, I was searching for other clients, jobs, etc. I gardened and created very little, and I missed it terribly.

The garden missed me, as well. DSC_0127This is my vegetable garden today. Riley is quite disappointed in the weeds and the chaos. All I can do at this point is to dig up the good stuff (asparagus & strawberries) and start over. It’s mostly weeds and I don’t have the gumption to fight them.

And then there was the winter: DSC_0006 (1)The heavy, wet snowfall in March was too much for my evergreens.

DSC_0002Branches snapped right off.

DSC_0077And a whole tree toppled over.

It was a hard year on my garden, and, I have to admit, it was a hard year on me, as well. But no more.

This year I will continue to work hard on my business. But I will make the time for those things that make me happy. That means relaxing with my family, gardening, and creating. Thus begins The Year of Jodie.

19 thoughts on “a hard year on the garden”

  1. If you don’t like weeds, don’t FIGHT them. Just ‘adapt’ them to becoming food for your [future] veggies. No digging or fretting–just add layers and layers of organics. Let nature do the heavy lifting for you. Things will get better for you; we all hit our humps along the way. All they do is slow us down, but they will never stop us! 😀 ~ Shannon

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  3. Yay for the Year of Jodie!! I do know that when life tips us on our heads it takes a while to arrive at the place where a future seems possible – in the first instance we are too busy simply surviving! And while trying to keep our heads above water in the financial/material sense, often unbeknown to us and unacknowledged by others, we are dealing with the shock and grief of having had our world turned upside down. You have done very well to be here already! The only thing we can be sure about in life is that it changes. Nothing is permanent. We learn we are more than our jobs, our positions, our status in society and we emerge stronger and surer for having gone through the trials. I remember after one enormous upheaval losing myself in my garden and healing myself with my hands in the soil. Another time I rented a cottage overlooking the ocean and painted myself back into balance. I did these things instinctively. And while I healed, the world waited. When I emerged again, it opened to me. It really is a most miraculous process. So go for it, take your year – take longer if necessary, do whatever you need to do. It will be so worth it!! I’ll be cheering you on for sure!

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  7. Oh, gosh! So sorry hard times have come. I can sympathize. We got really hammered during the Great Recession and have never recovered financially. (Thank you, greedy financiers, whom we then had to bail out.) But, yes! You are on the right track. When time are hard, not making the time for all the little things that give you pleasure is so easy to do. After all, you’re scrabbling like mad just to stay in one place. But it is important to take the time for gardening, reading, biking, whatever. I look forward to reading about the Year of Jodie. You go, girl! Your sister in Maine is rooting for you.

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