Volunteer Sungold tomato

Everything about this gardening season has gotten off to a slow start. I didn’t get my spring seedlings planted in time so I had to buy starts this year. I planted the cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and onion starts only to find them all dug up and destroyed two days later by marauding hens. My summer starts, also started late, are only now putting on some decent size.

During this period, my mind has been elsewhere, not focused on my garden. Call it existential angst, a mid-life crisis, mild depression or whatever you will, the fact is that I’ve been in a funk. The source of the funk is the fact that I need to make a pretty significant change in my life and, quite frankly, it’s taken some time to solidify my thinking around what I need to do. (Friends and relatives, don’t worry – we’re not talking about anything  like divorce, sailing around the world in a boat, or excessive body “art.”)

So, during this funk, my garden has suffered. Not to worry, however, as I can feel myself regrouping. While the spring season won’t be what I’d like, it’s not too late for a great summer, even if I do have to buy more starts to make that happen. I can also appreciate those things that happen without my effort, such as the volunteer Sungold seedling you see above. Just last week I was a bit bummed that I wasn’t going to have enough Sungold plants this year and yesterday I noticed a lovely little volunteer seedling doing great in the greenhouse. I’ll take it.

I can also appreciate all the energy produced by our solar panels. Now that they are installed, we just sit back and they do their thing. We’ve had the solar panels for just over a year and they’ve produced 7,802 KWHs of energy. That’s about 60% of our electricity usage and is pretty good considering that we’re now charging our electric Leaf regularly. For now, I’ll call that good and take that as well.

Sandy