It’s Garden Planning time! If you are ready for an epic battle with the elements of the earth, to fight for lush, pure beauty, to dig deep into your grittiest places to find the strength and endurance for marathon seasons of work and creativity, if you have a strong soul and a determined heart… then this series is for YOU!
Last week I asked you to write down your top goals for your flower garden in 2022. Your goals might be: “Practice growing to understand my microclimate,” or “Gather resources,” or “Find helpers.” You could say “Learn new propagation methods,” or “Buy a greenhouse.”
Second: think about why you’re doing what you’re doing. WHY you do what you do REALLY matters. The Why will carry you through when the going gets tough. Ask yourself, “Is my motivation strong enough to hold up when I want to quit because of exhaustion, pests, weather, or rejection (or all four combined!)?”
When I started farming, I wanted to bring in extra income. Growing flowers was a side hustle that used the resources I either had readily available or could get for free. I (thankfully!) already had water, soil, space, and time, and for free I could find library books and do Google searches. For very little cost, I bought packets of seeds and “traded” cookies for my neighbor Dorothy’s extra dahlia tubers. We were on a tight budget, barely making it each month. I was very motivated. Whether you have similar financial incentives, or if the sheer beauty of flowers is pressing you, or if the epic struggle of coaxing the earth to cooperate is calling you, your passion is the heart behind what you do, so include that essential info in your plan.
Once you have your primary goals/motives, you can outline more specific steps. If your primary goal is “Learn how to grow cut flowers,” some specific goals underneath that might be “Succession plant 100 sunflowers for 6 weeks and record the results of different planting dates,” and “Successfully plant, grow, and journal about 5 kinds of flowering annuals.” I will expand on this tomorrow. In the meantime I encourage you to finish drafting your goals!
WHY you do what you do REALLY matters. The Why will carry you through when the going gets tough.
Sarah Pabody