You know, like a walk of shame... returning home in last night's clothes, only I'm returning to "little seed" after about a year and a half of no posting. Yowzah.
I'm back for a couple reasons:
1. I just went out to my garden after a morning of work and I'm feeling inspired.
2. I'm supposed to be writing this article for work and I'm not feeling inspired at all. I'm hoping that writing about something I truly love will make me more motivated to write about marketing and company culture. We'll see.
{loving the color contrast of this lettuce variety + a background of parsnip leaves}
In the last year and a half, despite my absence here, I've been experiencing some real growth in my knowledge of sustainable / regenerative agriculture & gardening practices. I've finished up my Horticulture Degree from NC State University and have helped plan, market, and recruit for an organic farm in South Carolina.
With all the work I've been putting into learning, I find it easy to be discontent with the lack of output that knowledge is driving. Sometimes I feel like the harvest wasn't really worth the work it took to sow.
But then I remember... I'm sowing these little seeds, these little nuggets of knowledge, for a lifetime of change. I'm sowing to change the way I consume, to create a lifestyle for my family that yields healthy / happy humans, to start conversations with my friends and family about our food, and to work toward a system for our world that can feed its inhabitants and renew the earth that gives us such an abundance. This always sowing has a purpose.
The practice of always sowing is something I've been implementing this season in my garden too. I noticed that I was usually picking a weekend each season to plant {for hours}, and then wait-wait-waiting to go out and grab the fruits, and then eat-eat-eating all of that harvest for a really long time without much variation. So this year, I've adapted an always sowing practice of planting seeds here and there - usually 1 or 2 days a week - so that my plantings and my harvests are more staggered. This also helps me to utilize my {limited} space much more effectively, and only take a few minutes at a time.
Try this out in your gardens / raised beds / pots on your deck. Don't plant all those basil seeds at once. Instead, plant a few, reserve the seeds in the packet {storing in a cool dark place}, and then plant some more the next few weeks.
I've been doing this particularly with one raised and one in-ground bed that I've set aside for cut flowers this season. I want to be able to harvest my zinnias / globe amaranths / double click cosmos / rudbeckia & many more all throughout the summer, and I'm hoping this staggered planting schedule will allow for just that. I also want my garden to look beautiful after the first round of mature flowers are spent. And for budget-conscious gardeners like me, this stepped planting approach also helps me regulate my seed usage and get the most out of my seed packs.
{above: a selection of Southern Exposure Seed & Johnny's Selected Seeds packets - two of my faves}
Above all else, the practice of always sowing means I'm outside more, taking in the sunshine and growth of a new spring season, a little bit at a time on almost every nice day. And when I am regularly experiencing those little pockets of joy and awe of God's creation, I feel reassured that my sowing, my toiling, my hard work... it's not in vain.
"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap...the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."
- Paul's letter to the Galatians
