This afternoon, I went out to tend to our garden. I had planted many beds of seeds weeks ago. I was delighted to find that nearly all of the seeds that I had planted had come up. I took to the task of thinning out the seedlings this afternoon. I had already thinned them out once, but they needed another run through. The veggies that have sprouted are kale, lettuce, sugar snap peas, onions, and chard.
I am finding that thinning out seedlings is sort of a painful process. It is hard to eliminate even one of those promising little plants, but it has got to be done. Seedlings can't thrive if there are too many in one area. They need room to grow. Tiny seedlings can't grow if they have to compete with other seedlings in order to get their nutrients.
As I was kneeling in our garden today pulling up tiny little growing seedlings, I thought about how there is a need for prioritizing and even eliminating in order to grow and thrive in our own lives. Don't we all have things in our lives that can inhibit our growth more than nurture it? I guess it would be good to think about this whole thinning out thing, as it pertains to my own life, every now and again.
2 comments:
I love such metaphors and will have to ponder this one. Matt and I have experience (and I hear many others share the same thing) that when a move occurs, it makes it easy to get rid of more and more "stuff". I have been doing my fair share of that...despite the extra square footage. I'm learning lately that life feels more free/uninhibited with simple processes and less stuff. Hence, I echo your thinning thoughts. I might have to call on you in the next 6-8 months as plans for gardens and landscaping are surfacing in our house plans. See you soon -- amanda
Anna,
thanks for such a good reminder. I think not only about the contents of my shed and house but my heart and mind as well.
And, as a side note, I sympathize with the pain of the seedling selection process. It always leaves me feeling that struggle, selection, judgment, death, etc. are there right at the beginning of life. Well, that was dark...
As always, miss you all,
Daniel
PS-I've been meaning to ask you-just how do you put your seeds in the ground. I think you all have better success than we do. Do you a)dig little trenches? b)poke holes? c)how often do you water? d)do you find the water disturbs the soil or seedlings? e)do you ever just toss them out scattered? f)how do you find that balance between placing the seeds to deep and too shallow? What's your seed starting method when you are putting them straight into the soil?
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