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Here is photo of four of the six beans harvested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I tried to keep up my spirits with silly blogs from the point of view of the plundering groundhogs, this seige really sapped my confidence in myself as a gardener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n This was what the garden looked like a year ago. It was a low point, but the erosion of confidence happened slowly. This was because the assault on the gardens began slowly. When I first started the gardens here, there were fewer deer and no groundhogs. However each year the gardens were damaged a little bit more as more animals moved into the neighborhood. To begin with, there were still vegetables to harvest. By last year however, the assault was total. We had to build a fortress with wire fencing all the way to bedrock and eight foot high above ground fencing or give up growing vegetables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is the view of the garden now, looking past the free standing screened porch we call “the Peloton” <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here beloved Sheba makes the garden even more secure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is inside the garden looking towards the peas in the back corner. Is anybody surprised that my vegetable garden is full of Flowers too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n So back to my thoughts on outcomes. It’s very hard NOT to let outcomes define us….. BUT… it’s worth trying to do, because outcomes DON’T define us. Things that go wrong are sometimes on our watch but often not. Things that I have worked very hard on have failed to thrive, and the reverse is true too. While both successes and failures give us opportunities to grow, the failures often give us more opportunity to grow than the successes. We all know this, but it’s still hard to accept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This July I’m having fun with a vegetable garden that has vegetables in it. It gives me delight to walk through the double locked garden gate and look around. However, the total decline of the garden over the last decade made me take myself less seriously and work on my sense of humor. It was humbling to be a “local farmer” frequently buying up every vegetable in sight at the local farm stand. But if what we are REALLY here for is to lose our egos and find our true identity in Divinity then this sort of wearing down helps more than triumphs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I guess I should be TOTALLY grateful that life is still sending me humbling circumstances OUTSIDE the vegetable garden….but I must say that at least this growing season, I am enjoying eating fresh tender delicious green shelling peas along with my humble pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This growing season our newly fenced vegetable garden is overflowing with produce. The season is young, but already the garden is a cornucopia of bounty. At every meal, I prepare as much produce as possible, yet my counters are covered with more. I planted two fifteen foot rows of peas. Every night finds us shelling … Continue reading Outcomes Don’t Define Us<\/span> <\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n