Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Let's Get Productive

Here in North Texas we've survived one of the hottest summers on record. In fact Summer 2011 made the record books for having the most days over 100 degrees. Yea Summer! Whoop, whoop! No. Not so much a whoop whoop but a whomp whomp.

My cute little urban garden became quite a challenge. Some plants just couldn't survive the heat no matter how much attention I gave them. I never gave up hope though. I kept watering every day regardless of the fact that the plants weren't as productive as summers passed.

This summer was very taxing on me as well so I think my garden appreciated the fact that I gave it my best shot. I think that's why I found this week's surprise in the garden so rewarding. I've been watering my cucumbers all summer long. They had the most brilliant yellow flowers and the leaves were such a gorgeous shade of green. The bees seemed to enjoy them as well.

So I watered and was pleased that the plants would respond with such beauty.  They were alive and I was well enough to water. They might not be popping out yummy cucumbers but they sure were pretty flowering plants.

One day this week after spending some quality time with the monarch filled jasmine I started my watering. Much to my surprise was a gorgeous cucumber waiting for me to pick. It was huge. I'm not sure how I have missed it all this time but there it was. What an awesome treat. It was delicious too!

I love the lessons that I've learned in my little garden. Sometimes it takes me a while for my garden curriculum to take hold in my head. Mother Nature is a patient teacher. I've had some difficulty this week with the blow to my productivity and have found myself in my own sort of pity party. Me, Myself and I munching on chex mix...sipping sugar free punch...listening to Mary J Blige. Oh, who am I kidding. No pity party is complete without some Barry Manilow too.

I just came in from the garden after tending to my baby strawberry plants and realized that I've got this whole "productivity" thing sort of backwards. Garden experts will tell you to nip the strawberry blossoms to increase productivity. I happen to think that the blossoms are beautiful. So, I keep them. The experts will also say to snip off "runners" as this will decrease productivity as well. I keep the runners. I love to coax the runners to start a new plant by placing them in soil. Now I have lots of strawberry plants.

Maybe it's not the end product that we need to focus on in productivity. Maybe it's the gentle fostering of the process of productivity that we need to pay attention to. Thank you Mother Nature once again for the learning curve.

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