Category: Life Lesson

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. ~ Williams Jenning Bryan

 

Do you believe in destiny?  That there is something you are destined for, someone you are destined to meet, marry….a life that is laid out for you and all you have to do is follow the path?  A hard concept to wrap our brains around.  These are questions that creep into my conscious mind every so often.  More so now than ever before in my life.  For a while I just sort of followed along reliving the same mistakes and not looking outside the box I had placed myself into.

Once I started making deliberate choices, I would find the path smoother and things would move ahead.  But like clockwork I would fall into the old patterns that had not served me but seemed safe on the old path.  As I discovered, when I stood still long enough to really think about it, I was realizing what life is all about….it is about our path, our experiences, the good and the bad. The choices we make along that path, and how we are given opportunities to change those choices if they have not served us well.

And I discovered that letting things happen by chance isn’t always the best method.  In life and in my garden there are choices that we do make.  I don’t believe in accidental circumstances.  If you look back over your life you will see the path as it has happened. How you landed where you are currently.  It is all in the choices you and those around you make that influence your path.

And as I ponder this question further, I think about nature.  How we cannot even begin to try to figure out the choices Mother Nature makes.  They appear as accidents to us.  What are accidents?  Not planned, unexpected, happening by chance.  I cannot believe Mother Nature would just leave things to chance.  We just are not privy to her plan, the circumstances that underly what happens around us in the weather, the way a seed will germinate or not, why this year in a drought I had tomato blight?

But there is one chance occurrence I find in nature; plant volunteers.  I know that pollinators  and birds will help move seed around or the wind will blow them hither and yon.  They lay dormant until conditions exist to germinate the seed and start the young sprout.  But it is where they land that is the chance, the accident.

Some land right in the middle of another plant.  It makes for an interesting bloom time, and then deciding how I will separate them.  Some  grow between the bricks of my patio.  Mostly annuals that I have deadheaded and the butterfly bush.  Others grow tall in front of the border.  I leave these as well and decide later where to move them.  But I love these volunteers in my garden.  All except one.  Those seedlings from invasive plants that will easily take over a natural habitat and push out the native flowers.  These I dispose of.  If I have to choose I will choose the plants that the critters prefer.

I know many people do not like to run around and pull out seedlings that grow all over, even the native seedlings.  But it is part of gardening.  Some plants require that you let them seed since they are not long lived perennials.  Many rudbeckias, columbines and gaillardias are examples of this.  Hey where can you go and find dozens of free flowers blooming around your garden.  It is what nature intends, this seeding of the Earth.

I know for many people your garden is not a meadow, and if you had wanted a meadow, you would have planted one.  But I find it gratifying to look on these volunteers as a blessing.  More plants to move about; to help fill in a space.  These are also the happy accidents we can share with others.  The photos scattered about this post are of my volunteers.  I am joining Donna@Garden Walk Garden Talk for her Word for Wednesday meme.  Can you guess the word this week?  Accidental.

I thought I would share a bit of wrap up in the garden in honor of The Patient Gardeners’s End of the Month meme.  Veg gardening is definitely not something we can leave to chance.  If I could only figure out more about Mother Nature and how she does things?  Oh well…All in all the season was good to me.  My flowers bloomed beautifully and I had mild success in the veg garden.

Radishes, lettuces, garlic, carrots, cayennes and green chiles were all a great success.  Beets, peas, beans, tomatoes, sweet peppers, egg plant and sweet potatoes were a mild success.  My second planting in fall was a complete bust.  But I am not one to give up with the veggies or fruits.  I planted more blueberries and moved the raspberries that were running rampant on the flower beds.  I moved the strawberries to the main bed to better control the harvest.  As for the grape, we will have to start over to see why it is not really growing where I have it.

We added another small raised bed, and I am already contemplating another raised bed by next fall.  We shall see.  I want to be able to manage what I have before biting off more than I can chew which is a frequent problem for me.  I planted the round raised bed that is a bit too shady for veggies with spring bulbs.  I will seed it with annual flowers and eventually may plant it up with perennials.  I think I like the idea of a cutting garden for this bed.  Also on tap will be the widening of the front garden with a bit of a redesign.  And I hope to widen the garden between the trees by taking out a bit more turf.  We shall see how the soil amendment helped certain gardens, and perhaps reduced the horsetail growth.  Of course other gardens are slated for amendment this coming season.  We ran out of time and energy.

The big change will be the source of the veg and flower plants this year.  I am hoping to have success this winter using my new seed growing station in the basement.  Then as spring nears, I will be starting more of my own veg and flower seeds to use in the gardens.  We decided to wait to start experimenting with growing herbs and greens indoors until after the holidays.  We travel in November and December to see family and we didn’t want to leave the seedings unattended.

So there it is, lots doing still here during the winter.  Lots to plan for and design.  I leave you with one of my favorite quotes.

“It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”– J. K. Rowling

Coming next week will be another addition of Gardens Eye Verse with some new poems I hope you like. And please join me at Beautiful Wildlife Gardens for my latest post, Workhorses in My Native Garden.

 

As always, I’ll be joining Tootsie Time’s Fertilizer Friday.  So drop by to check out all the wonderful flowers this Friday.

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