Downsizing

Downsizing

This year we have experienced a shift in our family with a couple of significant things happening.   Firstly, we have become empty nesters.  After years of attempting to fill hollow legs and bottomless pits, the teen lads have well and truly fledged the nest.  They no longer require a gardenful of produce to keep them healthy.  They are more likely to reach out their hands for cold hard cash to keep their poor student lifestyles afloat.  A butternut squash is not as welcome as a tank full of gas.   But this is life and a new season to adjust to. 

While we miss the kids, we are enjoying the challenge of adjusting to life without them and one of the things we have realised is the garden may be a touch too big.  I still want to grow as many different kinds of edibles as possible, but we just don’t need to grow so many of them.  I don’t need four zucchini plants, no matter how cute the combinations of colours can be when you grow the yellow Solar Flare beside the Blackjack and the Greyzini. 

When I do my midwinter planning and seed gathering for the upcoming season I will need to make radical changes.  Ordinarily I have just moved my crop rotation signs and double check everything I normally grow is still relevant and make a few adjustments, then check my seed tin and make a list of the empty packets  and expired seeds and organise to get some replacements. It has been quite easy to sort out and become ‘ordinary’ and if I’m being honest the excitement and razzle dazzle of planning has waned a tad.   

Well not this season – I will need to get my thinking cap on and spend time making hard decisions.   Some things may not make the cut.   I am a little daunted by it as I really want to grow everything, and familiarity brings comfort.  I’ve been doing the same thing for so long, releasing the crops from the list will be like reliving the days the kids left home.  It won’t be easy.

In preparation for this change, I’ve used another significant event in the life of our family to force my hand.   For many years our little family grew up alone with our nearest relatives a long way away.  But in recent years my wonderful Mother In Law has moved nearby, and it has been such a blessing to have family close.  She has just recently hung up her hat and finally retired.  She has worked hard for all her life, although to be fair I can’t see her not dipping her toes back in as her career has brought her joy.  However, I did notice in her downsized property she took on to be near us has limited green space around it and that hasn’t stopped her from filling every nook and cranny with plants.

It wasn’t hard to see this is the result of a green thumb that has been held back by limited time and space.  Then it dawned on me – I have the space and she now has the time.   If I force my hand and make myself reduce my productivity to meet the needs of my shrunken household, I can give up at least one of my garden beds. And that is what I did.

This Mother’s Day my wonderful Mother In Law was gifted garden bed #15.  It is a 1m by 4m raised bed and should give her plenty of space to grow whatever her heart’s desire.  I have put a couple of caveats on it.  Firstly, we can’t grow things in the garden that will self-seed freely or spread easily and end up in the sand dunes.  People will know where it has come from.  And the other thing is, the garden isn’t ready yet – it is full of winter brassica.

I chose the bed for her as it is the one that would be most protected from the elements and will also slip easily out of my crop rotation cycle.  Aside from eating a mountain of brassica before officially handing it over, I will enrich the soil and give it the love it would ordinarily get at the end of a growing season.  I also need to make a few adjustments to the bed itself as the wood has moved in the elements.  I think if I had my time again I might have built the beds differently.  There is also some deep weeding to be done along the fence line.  I’ll still take responsibility for this area surrounding the garden bed, so she doesn’t need to. 

In the meantime, to be seen to give her something for Mother’s Day I made her a sign for the garden, got her some gloves and a kneeling stool as well as several printed out copies of her garden map with grid lines so she can make plans and dream big and make sure everything will fit in while she waits for us to eat all the brassica. 

Come again soon – it would seem this is a season of change.

Sarah the Gardener  : o)