Planning Without Panicking

 Hello

The other day I responed to somebody on Instagram who had been talking about lots of sowing they were going to be doing. I commented that I don't like thinking too far ahead with my sowing and growing. I explained that I love the winding down and changing of the seasons. 

I haven't in the past done lots of sowing in the Autumn but I do always put my onions and garlic in this month and in the last couple of years I've planted some bulbs to make the Aribnb listings more attractive. Even though I now have the poly tunnel to grow things over Winter - I already have peas, cabbage, khol rabi, salad leaves and carrots growing or started in there - I still feel I need a break from the need to always have to be doing SOMETHING outside. If I don't I have a break I get a panicky feeling and this takes the fun out of things for me.

For me Autumn into Winter is the start of the year winding down and here is how I explained my thoughts in another post on my Instagram account.

 

I have to admit my garden is not looking so favourable just now - leaves to be collected and saved for veg bed mulch and pots and trays to be packed away (tricky when your greenhouse is more like a gazebo) but also exciting things like onion and garlic to be sown in anticipation of a tasty harvest next year. Hmmm, next year; good to have some positivity to keep in mind there. Gardening is perfect for that and Clea Danaan in her book Mindful Thoughts for Gardeners tells us 

"The harvest period is a time of letting go. When we go through personal growth the same is true.... we rejoice in our new discoveries, we need also to give ourselves time to grieve and let go. And then, when we have fully released our old selves, we can crack open the fruit before us and discover what lies inside - seeds for the future. This is the nature of a harvest: a release of the past, a gift in the present and a promise of hope for the future." Let's all look to some hope for everyone in everything in the months to come.

I really am going to try and keep this in mind for my STATE of mind! It is wonderful to have things growing all year round, where you can, but the change in the season is about being grateful for the past, appreciating what it has given by way of our harvests, but we and the land need to recover. The land needs to re-charge its batteries and we benefit from that also. The nights are drawing in so we're beginning to have shorter days and less time to work on our little patches of paradise. I love the bright, chilly mornings where I enjoy looking around the garden and now will do so in the poly tunnel, too.

I will be making plans for next year, in fact I'm looking at a few things just now,

but I'm taking my time and enjoying it and not feeling forced to be out there all the time because frankly right now its just too wet!

Bye for now, Lou.xx