Wintering: Not drafting planting maps just yet…
I recently received a Happy New Year card from a dear friend. In it she mentioned she was already dreaming of summer camping. Then she added, “and I bet you’re planning your garden now.” She knows me well.
Except this January… I’m not.
Mattie’s cancer battle initiated serious scaling-back last year, and it now has us re-thinking a LOT this year. John and I have had many conversations about the giant elephant in the room: How long are we going to keep doing this?
It was humbling to realize we didn’t have the energy to “do it all” when life threw us a single curve ball. Sure, we still harvested way more than expected in 2023, and we’re grateful for that. But, boy, have we needed this winter season to rest.
We’re exhausted.
Should we really go right back to how things were before?
Should I really grow four hundred veggie starts in my living room—for me and for the neighborhood Plant Sale Cart I used to manage every spring? How about just 3 starter trays for us instead?
Should I really plant out every available annual veggie bed this year?
What if we remained scaled-back? What if more than half the beds are left to rest again? Would that be so bad?
All these questions dance around an even bigger question: Is it time to think of our exit strategy? When do we sell? In ten years? Five years? Two? Physically, we can’t do this stuff forever. That’s life in mortal bodies! But when do you know it’s time for the downsize?
I know I don’t want to downsize reactively (for instance, what if the next emergency isn’t a veterinary health crisis, rather it’s one of us—and then we “have to sell” under duress). Mattie’s cancer battle woke me up to these thoughts. No one lives forever, and we sure aren’t getting younger.
But when you have this much literal blood and sweat in a plot of land, even a tiny plot, how do you find a buyer who will similarly love the place?
Wrestling with these thoughts, I’m nowhere near plotting out the annual beds just yet. For now, I’m hanging out with the questions.
Over New Year’s weekend, I canned a few dozen jars of jam from all those berries in the freezer. That was a nice productive chore. (How lovely to smell raspberries in the middle of winter!)
But drafting the planting maps? I’m just not there yet. Stay tuned!