Innovating Organic Gardening

The thrill of watching those tiny seeds burst into life, the joy of nurturing them, and the anticipation of a bountiful harvest. 🌟 That’s the dream, right? But reality check: not everything will flourish equally, and that’s perfectly okay! 🌱

Why, you ask? Because each setback is a classroom, and each triumph is a celebration. The broccoli might be finicky this year, but oh boy, look at those tomatoes thrive! It’s a beautiful cycle of learning and growth.

I know it’s tough, with our climate throwing curveballs, it’s easy to worry about our garden’s fate.

But here’s a secret: those seeds? They want to grow. They crave the soil, the sunlight, and water. 🌞 And when you trust in their natural desire to thrive, suddenly, those fears start to fade away.

Here are my top 5 ways to overcome vegetable garden failures:

💫Embrace Change: Every year is different these days and this is challenging for all us humans who like things to be more predictable. Thing is, nothing in life is really predictable – this is likely why we crave it sometimes. 

If we shift our point-of-view from one of fear of what might happen this year, to lets experiment and see what awesome things happen, then we can lessen the stress.

Remember each year in your garden will likely be different, embrace it, and if you shift with those changes you’ll be a more resilient gardener.

🌿Replace for Rejuvenation: There are times when something we plant just does lousy. Instead of being bummed and trying to nurture what is beyond hope of rejuvenation, replace it with another plant. 

Decide if the plant is salvageable.  If it is diseased or has a bug predation, then nope, I’d ditch it. 

If it simply is not in a good spot, not growing or producing, even if you add a bit of compost around it, then well, replacement is likely the best option.

With the plant that is not doing well, you can compost it, if isn’t diseased or full of bugs. If it is, ditch it.  

Either way, when you replace a plant, you rejuvenate your garden, which in turn can rejuvenate you. 😀

🌱 Growth Gratitude:  Life is full of lessons and they grow us as a person.  When something doesn’t go the way you want it too, a plant doesn’t produce, an experiment you tried felt like a failure, instead of the sense of failure, transform it into a lesson of gratitude. It is one more lesson you can avoid in the future.

By practicing gratitude for our growth lessons, we evolve a way to nourish ourselves.  

😂 Remember to Laugh: Are you someone who laughs allot?  I confess I don’t think I laugh enough sometimes, yet when I laugh at something I’ve done, bring humor into a situation, it just doesn’t seem to bad.

A story of how this works: I remember a day when I seeded tomatoes and forgot to label them.

I was distracted and I knew they were tomatoes, but which ones?  Could have been one of 30 varieties.

It wasn’t until a couple weeks later when I was doing inventory of my seedlings that I discovered my mistake. It was a whole flat of healthy happy tomato seedlings of unknown variety.

All the varieties I had planned to start were accounted for, something got seeded more than once.

After an initial “oh crap!” I laughed and offered them as “Mystery tomatoes” and people thought it was fun.

It also gave me a story to pass on to my students on the importance of labeling your seedlings well.

🔐 Unlock support: If you’re feeling the fear of some aspect of your organic garden’s journey, let’s chat! 📞 Book a free 15-minute organic garden discovery call with me, Debby Ward, your professional organic coach.

Let’s turn those uncertainties into opportunities for an awe-inspiring garden transformation! 🌿✨