Let go of...

A wise gardener will tell you that he/she learns new things every summer. The wisdom I had to show this year is the art of letting things go.

I had to give up the idea that the garden would be maintained like I would have done it if I would have not broken my ankle, an evitable accident that made me prisonner of my balcony all summer long. The list of things that weren't done my way is long; the frequency of watering and adding fertilizer, weeding, bugs, pests and diseases' monitoring, isolating the fruits ready to be identified in order to keep their seeds, the ideal time to harvest the fruits, etc. Not to mention the weather that I never got to know how to control, even without a broken ankle...

Gardening is also accepting that you are never totally in control. It's having to deal with surprise elements that will come up, wether you want it or not; the municipality that prohibits watering with a hose during a period of drought, hail that bombards and destroys certain plants, a cute raccoon that thinks your garden is a buffet to which you have formally invited it, etc. It is precisely through these surprises that we learn, that we make useful discoveries and that we come down to gardening differently, more effectively.

Go get your shovel, get set, let go of!