Inch By Inch

Many of life's lessons consists of failing and trying again and again.  Gardening lessons are much like these life lessons.   Inherently, and inevitably, gardening mimics life as you tend to the living things, helping the first seed burst from Mother Earth, then nurturing the seedling until it matures and bears fruit of its own.  At the same time, you become that life, you are a mirror image of what you care for, as you and the earth are inseparable.  Symbiotic.  One can't live without the other.

One of the lessons I have learned in my own gardening experience is to try something a different way.  There really are 4 components to growing a successful plant: Seed, sunlight, soil, and moisture.  If any are inadequate or suboptimal in some way, growth and survival is compromised.

After several unsuccessful attempts in the past years, I very much wanted to have healthy cucumbers this season. But no matter what I tried to plant directly into the earth, I ended up with dead plants within just weeks.  So I finally decided to do something different.  I reverted to container planting. Choosing a more isolated, sunnier spot to grow, these guys have so far had a good, healthy start.

Cheers to change!