Does it feel like summer yet? It does to me! Summer doesn't officially start for a few days but it's been feeling plenty hot for a couple weeks now.
What does that mean? Well, it means your farmers get to sweat a LOT! We find ourselves moving a little slower in the heat but the work must go on. What else does it mean? The end of the peas...sniff. Last week was the hay day for the peas, but once it consistently hits 90, the peas say bye bye! Get your last taste this week as we pick them clean.
So...we'll rip 'em out and plant a third round of beans. Normally our first round of beans would be ready by now but if you remember (and it's hard to in the heat now) we had a sort of extended cold spring that kept the ground cool and made us delay some of our warm season plantings. Unfortunately that means a delay in the longer season summer loving crops.
Now we are in a race to keep on top of trellising and pruning the cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers and staying ahead of the weeds. If you keep a garden, you know that June is when the weeds make the push to TAKE OVER! and if you don't win the battle for June, you can say goodbye to your garden in July. I once took an entire week off work in July to battle 7 foot tall weeds in the garden. My weapons were loppers and a machete. Not an advisable gardening solution, but a bit a mad desperation! So, we cultivate, cultivate, cultivate. Before we even see the weeds we cultivate.
In the summer we use the summer heat to our advantage so that when we clear out a crop we'll amend with compost, water and cover with a black tarp. During the heat of day it'll literally cook away the weeds and weed seeds remaining and at night the earthworms come up to feed. Leave if for a week, pull back the tarp and plant again.
The layout of the farm is in constant change as crops rotate in and out. Some long season crops hold their place for the majority of the season but others are constantly getting swapped out in the constant march of the seasons. Now the heat loving crops are filling their places in the fields. The final tomato and pepper plantings are out as are the sweet potatoes.
So we're fully engaged in summer right (I mean summer is about to officially begin)? Nope, we also have to keep an eye on the fall. The first of the fall plantings of broccolini have been planted and have emerged in the seedling greenhouse. Next we'll be planting for fall kohlrabi and napa cabbage. One of the hardest things about year-round gardening is staying ahead of your current context. You can't get absorbed in how you feel today. All I want to do is enjoy some iced tea in the shade and day-dream about those soon-coming tomato sandwiches...but we have to resist the urge to be captive to our circumstances. We must look beyond them. Plan ahead. Be prudent.
You can't live for the moment and be a successful farmer. I question whether you can live for the moment and be a successful anything. I can't assure any results except the results of inaction. I can ensure that you won't have broccolini in September if I don't plant them now and I can ensure that the garden will be destroyed in August if I don't keep it weed free in the month of June. When I plant and weed now with an eye toward the future, I don't ensure success. There are so many factors outside my control but NOT doing the things I know I need to do WILL ensure failure.
What areas in your life need this sort of proactive thinking? Tempted to coast, chillax?
I recently heard someone describe something that urges him toward proactive thinking. He imagines himself at his 60th birthday party (he's in his early 40s now) and imagines two scenarios. One where his kids (then grown and with their families) with overflowing joy tell stories to the guests of how much their father means to them and how much they have been shaped by his love and character. And another scenario where most of the kids don't even attend and where the only thing one of them can bring himself to do is to sheepishly raise a toast "to dad". Then he asks himself, "what do I need to do today to work toward scenario 1 and avoid scenario 2?"
That's keeping an eye on the future and not getting caught up with the busyness of the present.
While I'm here, I might as well take it way out there and say, planning 20 years out might not be long enough range thinking....what about after that?
Speaking of the heroes of the faith, the author of Hebrews writes: "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city." - Hebrews 11:13-16 ESV.
The greatest among us, look beyond today and live with the future in mind. Live life on purpose, with a purpose.
If you read this far...thanks. I'd be happy to know what you think.
So blessed to be your farmer,
Dave
