This Post is Brought to You by the Letter P

As in “perspective”.

Each and every year, I write a gardening post similar to this.  Talking about the desire for more, and the concept of “enough”.

And every year I think “next year is the year I’ll not need to remind myself how lucky I am and how much I already have”.

And every year I need to give myself a swift kick in the ass to snap out of the “more, more, more” mentality.

The only surprising part about this year’s post?  That I made it all the way to mid-June before posting it!

So, to recap, I live on a small property.  I want a giant garden and I want to grow 17 billion things.  And it just can’t happen. And when I’m planning my garden each year, I think “why?  Why can’t I have more space”?  I desire ever more.  I covet copious amount of soil.

And then I have a night like tonight, where I spend 45 minutes picking strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.  45 minutes!  My garden might be small, but it is mighty!

I’ve worked late every single day this week, and I barely have the energy to brush my teeth when I get home at night, let alone spend 1.5 episodes of Jeopardy (nerd alert) picking berries.  Even if I could have “more”, actually managing that amount wouldn’t be feasible.  My perspective always changes in those moments, and my mind does that little “uh duh” shift and I realize that this is exactly how things should be.  For now.

I’ll never have enough strawberries to completely fulfill our jammin‘ and eating needs, but this was the first year that I was able to fully satisfy all the fresh eatin’ we could possibly handle.

As part of my journey to perspective, I have a few visuals to share with you.

This is what $10 worth of bare root strawberries look like halfway through the summer (last year)…well all the plants that survived the chicken onslaught.

And this is that same area one year later.  This patch of berries has been producing heavily for almost a month and takes a full 20-35 minutes to pick clean daily.

Raspberries in the background

And I got this in one night.

And the next.

The next.

The next.

The next.

Oh? and the next.

Guess what?  The next night too.  This was tonight.

And for anyone who follows me on Instagram, I apologize that you had to see this photo of my white ass legs twice.  The caption was “the pink hands of summer and the white legs of winter”.

So, I’m set for this year in terms of getting my perspective in check.

Next year though?  No guarantee that I won’t get a case of the greedies again.

Dear Sarah of 2016,

More isn’t necessarily better.  “Enough” is the tits.  Calm the hell down and eat your strawberries.

xo,
2015 Sarah