Something's gotta give

Originally posted to Multiply July 28 2011

July is flying by in a blur of work and a feeling that we are still waiting for real summer to start. This is so wrong! This is the summer we are given, here and now. There is no snow on the ground and things are growing, even if other critters are eating too many of them.

It is last year's next year. Every year halfway the growing season I start translating this year's disappointments into next year's dreams. My epitaph will read: "Here lies Ien. Next year she will have a perfect garden."

It has NOT been a good year so far.  

Part of the reason for that is the cold spring and the plague of slugs, but let's face it, part of it is my own fault. I am simply over-extended. Now some people, blessed with more energy, design sense and organizational skill may be able to create and maintain lovely flower borders, do the chickens, get the herb garden/nursery beds organized, take care of the greenhouse, pot up plants for market and have a thriving food garden. 

I am not, especially since my right hip has developed a mind of its own lately and occasionally slows me down.

Something has to give. The something will be plants for the market. Sales are slower by now anyway. It is just too time consuming, not to mention the exhausting shlepping involved. I left them at home during Music Fest. It was such a cinch to load and set up!

It seems every time I start doing something gardenish I find myself at the sink in the greenhouse potting up some suffering plant in a container.

I'll just do Reflexology for the last month, and perhaps leisurely create a bunch of stuff for a last-day half price table on Labour Day weekend. It gets chilly by then.

Tomorrow is the weekly free day, mine to spend entirely as I please. The intention is to go up to the fenced veg garden and work like crazy. It is PATHETIC. The potatoes were a bright spot, but now there are signs of rodent activity. Wilted leaves that turn out to have a chewed-up stem somewhere. I'll take some pictures tomorrow. To be continued.