Accidental Farming

One of the unexpected joys of my summer has stemmed from my venture into accidental farming. What I mean by that is that last summer, after my potted lettuce went to seed along with the windswept days of back to school, the seeds carried from the pot into the lawn. In the Spring this year, I was pleased to see the lettuce regrowing in the pot, and kind of delighted to find it growing among the grass too. What I did was pick the “lawn lettuce” first, taking the roots with it, so that I got a few good salads out of that before focusing on spreading the lettuce more evenly in the pot with the roots.

Another crop that we currently have growing in the yard is Cinderella pumpkins, the flatter kind that look like they came out of a fairy tale. How that came to be was an early snow that covered the pumpkins along the front corner of the yard before I had a chance to relocate them. Through the long winter and subsequent thaw, the pumpkins decomposed, and so now July is here with large green leaves, trailing vines, yellow flowers and 3 pumpkins so far growing on the edges of the grass. I’m not mad about it.

Along with all of these accidental ventures, the raised garden of herbs on my deck is lush. I have lemon thyme, basil, tarragon, sage, oregano, lavender, chives, and lemon balm. They sit aside the raised bed of dahlias and summer squash that I started from the seed library that our local libraries have had each summer. I have been putting these herbs into everything from omelettes, veggies, caprese salad, tea…

Perhaps my favorite, though, is the 2 sunflowers growing amid all of this. They are my favorite flowers, the way that their gorgeous faces open to the light. Mine have not turned to yellow yet, but I can see them getting there, and it has been a joy to watch all of this happen through the last few months. I planted the seeds on Mother’s Day and I just think it is very fitting that there are 2 of them that grew, one a little taller than the other.

It might sound like my yard is a wonderland of plants, and it is—but this year, I have not weeded the trees and dandelions growing wild in the mulch behind my bushes where no plants grow. My reasons for this are many, starting with the fact that I am a little salty that the landscaper we hired this year for the one job of clearing the gardens and putting down new mulch, did not put the ground covering underneath.

I hired someone because I am trying this new thing where I know my limits and am asking for help with the things that are too much. Because there is no ground covering beneath the mulch, all it has done is welcomed even more growth. I will say that the dandelion leaves are so enormous now that I have been looking up ways to cook them and add them into our diet.

All of it is there in my yard: the deliberate, the accidental graces, the things we choose to let go.

It very much sums up my existence right now.

How about you, friend? Where are you finding the unexpected, the deliberate and the places to let go? Please let me know in the chat. I would love to hear it!

Keep Blooming,

Abbie