When you spend enough time with the land — digging in the dirt, watching the seasons roll over each other — it starts to teach you things you didn’t even know you needed to learn. This spring, the farm has been whispering lessons about patience, resilience, and finding joy in the imperfect. Here are a few truths the land is planting in me right now.
Let me paint a picture for you...
When I gardened in my past life (lol just kidding – my last garden was circa 2007ish), I used my dog run (to keep said dogs out). It was limited in space and it limited what I could grow/experiment with. I really didn’t visually see anything beyond that area if that makes any sense. I saw that space and that was the space I was going to garden in.
What a limiting box that was for me to put myself in. I see people turning their yards over to grow gardens & flowers. Front yards too. I saw a flower farmer say f-you to her grass and turn it into a lavender yard. It was a beautiful thing to watch.
All that being said, my experience was very box like. Now that I have land and space, it’s all I can think about…what can I do with this land. How can I be the best steward it’s ever seen (in the last 40+ years at the very minimum)? I can start by picking up all the trash that has collected upon it (because it was legit someone’s dumping ground for decades. I can start by removing the underbrush, cleaning out the poison ivy & poison oak that it’s festered with. I can till up the land and plant a big beautiful garden. I can finally see beyond the box.
Lessons I've learned so far...
Patience. It cannot all be done in a day, let alone a few days or even weeks. This land will take years to manicure and steward in the right direction. What we’ve accomplished so far is light years ahead of where it was. But it’s not where we want it. And it will just take time to get it there. We only have 24 hours in a day. We run a very busy roofing & construction company. And we’re just doing the best we can.
Trusting the Unseen. We bought our land in the dead of summer. We cleared a lot of trash trees out and brush. We saved the grand ladies & gents of the land. But when summer turns to fall and everything begins to shrug out of the growth experienced during the previous spring season, it can be a bit unnerving to wait until Spring to see if you inadvertantly killed something you weren’t supposed to. Having trust that we were stewarding correctly felt like a leap of faith. I’m proud to report that everything is in full bloom & it’s a beautiful sight.
Letting Go of Control. I’ve planted out nearly 5000SF garden. I have zero utilities to help me in my water/lighting efforts, so I’ve had to get creative. I started with 1 – 355 gallon water container (I now have a total of 3). I started out by trucking my water in (filling up at our shop). Now I have access to our neighbor’s well water, so only have to use a Skid Steer to take my tanks for a fill up. I have no fence around my garden. I tried using sound/light emitting gadgets to help keep the animals out of my garden – but they require being charged up daily (even though they have solar panels attached). I just have to accept, I cannot control if some critter want to entertain themselves or feed themselves from my garden. So far, nothing crazy has happened outside of footprints through, but it’s definitely fully out of my control.
Life lessons beyond the land...
All of these farm lessons have spilled over into my daily grind. A gentle reminder to slow down. To be patient with what’s going on around you. To be more gentle with yourself and others. To remember that you truly aren’t in control of the narrative. You’re just there for the ride. And even in seasons of hard, to remember that it’s just a season. It will not last forever.
Curious…what lessons has life been nudging upon you lately?
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