I am big – and I mean big – on writing down goals and New Year’s Resolutions. I even carry my 2 pages of goals in my purse. Did I mention I was a bit detailed too? Those 2 pages of text are only 7 goals.
Wnen I was having lunch with 2 girlfriends in Arkansas last week I said I had neglected my garden for the past 6 months. A friend – whose garden is full of fun, creativity and great plants – said she has literally stepped into her garden to work once in the past six months (it is not laziness – she has been a caregiver and worked on 3 houses during that time). Then she asked “You haven’t done anything?”
“Well, I did reclaim the shed after the chickens moved out, then the contractor needed me to move the deck furniture and stuff under the shed while he worked, so that came to a standstill. And I did hire a great lady to help out a few days. We reclaimed 3 garden plots back to lawn and started a new bed under the pines with lots of plants I had and 4 new camellias. I planted several large planters. I did plant a strawberry bed and added compost to all the raised beds. And I pruned back butterfly bushes, spirea and forsythia so the house could get painted. But there’s so much that didn’t get done.”
“Well, you didn’t do nothing!”
So often we discount what we do and dismiss little things that add up. Last night I sat down and filled out an un-Resolution Worksheet and it was eye-opening. It started by celebrating what went right in 2010, what your favorite moments were, who is a new friend, and what you were proud of enduring (like the snake living in my chicken coop). Before you plan 2011, look back with some pride at what went right in 2010 and build on that. What tree turned its most vivid fall color, what planting bed looked great, what new bird moved into your habitat, what special moments happened in your garden, what special plant moved in, what you have read and learned, what other gardens did you visit, what person did you hear speak.
Of course a lot didn’t get done. It’s a garden: an ever-changing, ever-growing, living thing. Relish in what went right, then pick up all those mail order catalogs that just arrived and plan to make 2011 even better.