I feel like I have bitten off more than I can chew, and my eyes are bigger than my stomach but I really want what I want, so I will work hard to get there. My garden is huge. Last time it was built up slowly over 10 years. This time I want it all done in 10 weeks. Actually I have longer than that but it sounds more dramatic that way.
Winter isn’t the best time to be doing all of this either – well it is because it is a behind the scenes kind of a season where nothing much is growing and if I pull it all off, I will meet my goal of being ready for the new season. I am desperate to meet this goal because buying vegetables is beginning to wear thin. I don’t mind buying onion, garlic and spuds when my crops run out… but to have to buy other simple easy to grow things that should be safely tucked up in my freezer or out in the garden to be pulled at my leisure like a fresh carrot…. To me I can see the benefits to growing, in taste, freshness and lack of plastic wrap very clearly and I’m keen to remove the cost of veggies from my weekly shop. This keeps me motivated, that and realising the vision in my head of the finished garden in full flourish – it will look magnificent.
The problem is winter is cold and wet and often times miserable and it is much more preferable to be wrapped up warm by the heater. It is easy to get down on myself for not achieving much on a daily basis. Fortunately I have installed a time lapse camera overlooking the garden and can see just how much I have achieved in as little as one month! I don’t feel so bad about it all now and I’m encouraged to carry on. Every little bit helps. I will get there in the end – determined and exhausted. But it will be well worth it.
You can see for yourself just how far I’ve come by checking out my timelapse footage:
Come again soon – progress is being made and Rome wasn’t built in a day!
Sarah the Gardener : o)
Good work. That’s a massive garden with lots to get done. I can’t imagine moving that amount of soil with a wheelbarrow. If you have a helper, you could dump a bunch of soil on a plastic tarp and drag and dump it in the spot you want. That’s what my husband and I would do when we had to move a thousand pounds of compost or mulch.
That’s a good idea. I have been working with the do a little bit at a time idea. So I’ll do 3 or 4 loads and then go and do something else. I have had a bit of help though for which I’m extremely grateful. : o)
Wow Sarah, you said huge but you really meant huuuuge. Fantastic progress and it’s looks awesome. You’re a machine!
Thanks Fiona. Sometimes it feels huge when there are big jobs to be done like filling the beds, but when I’m in among it doing a small job it feels perfect! : o)
Oh my goodness but that’s one huge garden!!!! You’ve done amazingly well in such a short period of time 🙂 x
It’s pretty cool. Sometimes you don’t realise how much you have done until you look back… I was been beating myself up with how much is still left to do. But not now! : o)
Lol, Sarah do remember that even Rome wasn’t built in a day ……. in fact I’m pretty sure it took more than one month to build 😀 Just saying 😉 xx
I know – I’m just a tad impatient to get it all done. : o)
Gardens can get that way. We want to grow it all. I got 14 fig trees just because I wanted copies of all the fig trees that I knew in the Santa Clara Valley. (A few are other varieties.)
Wow 14 figs! I have just made a bit of a list of all the fruit trees I want… came as a bit of a shock when you add them all up. : o)
All your hard work will pay off big dividends with ease of work in all the years to come. Getting things straight and level, using good soil, and doing it yourself will bring great satisfaction every time you look at the garden or harvest something wonderful. And how wise you are to document every aspect. It will make a great program someday. Great decisions. Your husband gets his dream home by the sea, and you get your dream garden. Win/win!
It will be our forever home and all going well we will both be happy in it. The garden will give me years of pleasure, which is why I’m going out of my way to make a good foundation. : o)