Summer's Grand Finale

The season has come full circle in my tiny garden, from the first pictures I shared of empty pots, seed packets and bags of soil, to the beauty and bounty above. It took a few false starts and having to learn the lay of the land, (aka how this apartment used - or didn't use - light and air quality), but all of my hard work finally paid off. I have already cut back my basil plant several times and enjoyed some fresh in sauces and stir-fries while drying the rest to keep and use over the winter. The same holds true for the parsley, rosemary, and spearmint. We'll see how long I can keep them going under the grow light as the days, and especially the nights, get colder. Just to show you how brave I've gotten with this experiment, I even started some new basil seeds just to see what they'd do and, low and behold, they are coming up. I might even get another plant going before the first frost.

I have come to believe that this tiny garden was my lifesaver over these last few months. The sowing, watering, pruning, moving pots around from grow light to window sill as the weather got warmer, and finally enjoying the tiny harvest while absorbing the beautiful colors of the begonias, geraniums and impatiens, has kept my spirits up and put the cycles of nature front and center for me. That has kept me focused on the beliefs that keep me going, like acknowledging that nature keeps evolving and so do we, that life also has seasons to go through just like in nature, and that, in the end, all the work and learning will bear flowers if we just believe and sow love into the seeds we plant in the dirt and in our hearts. 

Soon it will be time to put all the plants back under the grow lights to see which ones will solider on through the winter and which won't. Next spring I'll take what I've learned this year and put it to use to make my tiny garden even better and more productive. That's kind of what we're supposed to do with life as well, to take what we've learned and use it to build an even better life. It just depends on what you want to grow, and how much work and love you're willing to put in.

And so it is.