I have been in my garden up to my eyebrows in earthworms (lots of them), flowers and weeds, thanks to the prodigious amounts of rainfall we've had this June. A recent weather report stated that it rained 20 out of the first 24 days of the month. Where the garden is concerned, I believe in making hay while the sun shines, or in this case, planting flowers while the rain holds off. Planting, transplanting and weeding are all easier to accomplish, although a bit messier, once the ground has been saturated from a good soaking rain.
This year I have a plan to transform my garden from merely attractive to visually spectacular. There have always been large spaces in my front yard garden in between my perennials that are usually bare during the summer. Well, almost bare, if you don't count the constant weed ground cover that grows faster than I can pull it out. I always have the intention of covering up those bare spaces with a flowering ground cover like creeping phlox or maiden pinks but somehow the summer ends, along with my good intentions, and the ground cover never gets planted. This year it's going to be different. I have already gone a long way towards clearing out the weeds in my front yard in spite of the constant rain that keeps them vigorously spreading, and I have begun filling in the bare ground with marigolds. Marigolds are very forgiving plants, flowering endlessly all summer, self seeding and offering the added bonus of acting as a natural mosquito repellent. (Hint: If you plant tomatoes, plant marigolds in between the rows. Marigolds help protect tomatoes from pests both above and below the ground.) In my backyard garden I have already laid in a large swath of impatiens and marigolds. I am also planning on putting in a stone path to allow me to enter and tend the garden without stepping directly on the ground and getting muddy.
As these changes are taking place in my garden, I can feel changes taking place in my mind. One thing that came to mind was something that should be very obvious yet had eluded me for many years. The changes in my garden are taking place because I took the first step and created a clear plan. This gave me a general blue print to follow but it was not so rigid that it could not accomodate changes. It dawned on my that the same thing must occur in the creation of a business. Of course everyone has heard that you have to create a business plan if you want your business to be successful but this one simple step has eluded me. No, not eluded, paralyzed. The thought of creating a business plan filled me with such a paralyzing fear that I never ventured beyond the dream of wanting to build my own business. While I was working in that garden, turning soil and planting impatiens, I realized that a business is like garden. I just have to decide what, where and when I want to plant and slowly follow the plan to do it. If I decided to change things a little, no problem. The plan will allow for that flexibility. It seems so simple. Like Dorothy in Oz, I couldn't see what was in front of me all the time.
Once again my garden has brought me insights I was not able to achieve in conscious thought. Now to put that knowledge into action. In the meantime I will share with you photos of my most recent experiment - an upside down tomato plant. I took a small pail, cut a hole in the bottom and stuck a tomato plant in it, filled it with dirt and hung it up in the sun. I planted marigolds in the top as natural pest control. The tomato is growing well without the need for staking and without dragging on the ground. You can see the nascent tomatoes at the bottom of the second photo, taken about a month after the first photo. We'll see this works out.
Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva
