Thanks to contributing writer, Shannon for sharing her lessons from the garden with us. I think we can all relate!

Lessons from the Garden and the Greatest Tool of All

By Shannon DeAnna Schofield

EEEEEKKK!!!  The seed catalogs are in and I could not be more excited!

Gardeners, farmers, flower enthusiast, newbies, and wannabes alike all know the little flutter you get in your stomach as you open that little book of hope, adventure, and excitement.  We’re just getting over the stressful holidays and have that window of time to plan for next year’s growing season.  I get chill bumps of pure joy just thinking about it!

As I go through the magical pages I have three highlighters.  Pink for “must-haves”, green for “I want”, and blue for “one day”.  After flipping only halfway through, I notice that I already have dozens of things marked in pink…..dozens.  I realize it’s time to remember my most valuable gardening tool and implement it right now.

Gardening Goals: a Sustainable Lifestyle Farm

I grab my gardening journal, a simple one-subject notebook. That’s not my most valuable gardening tool, but it does contain it. 

I start at the very first page, “Goals”.  This page lists my long-term goal of a mostly sustainable lifestyle, and also my short-term goal, “Shannon’s Sweet Tooth Farm”, along with a few other shorter goals. 

Goals Are the Planned Pavement in the Road of Life

All of my goals are the planned pavement in my road of life.  Of course, you can’t always pave a road when and where you want to and have to adjust your plan along the way.  So, I take my goal journal, which I started keeping four years ago and flip through it page by page.

The first three years were remarkably successful.  A few difficulties were noted but my yields were high enough to sell a few leftover veggies in my second season.  My third season produced a profit of about $100.  I used that money to take a beekeeping class and buy seeds.

As a self-taught gardener/wannabe farmer it was crucial to start keeping a goals and planning journal.
~Shannon DeAnna Schofield, beekeeper, gardener, poet, author

Garden Goals and Planning

Order Plants with Multiple Purposes

Reading my journal entries I can see I was equally excited last year about my seed catalogs and ordered dozens of plants, bushes, seeds, and trees.  I was practical and maintained some focus and ordered mainly things that had multiple purposes.  Most perrenials also double as bee food and triple as medicinal herbs for teas.  My blackberry bushes and peach trees are essential to my plan.

Start with Good Soil

I go to my journal entries before planting.  My soil was perfection.  It took several years to get that right as I had heavy, red clay soil. My soil is perfect for for making pottery, but very poor for gardening.

The lasagna gardening method is beneficial for building up poor soil, and also hugelkultur, which is especially helpful if you live near woods.

With perfect soil, I predicted my yields and began planning and planting. Although we had an unusually wet spring, so I adjusted my yield predictions to be much higher than expected as we’ve been in a drought for several years prior.

My Most Valuable Gardening Tool

Ahh, there it is!  My most valuable gardening tool.  Right there on page 36 of my journal.  Written in black and white, with utmost astonishment, was my most valuable gardening tool.  My Failure.

Yes, that’s right, my most valuable gardening tool is failure.

Despite having what I thought were perfect conditions, the majority of my vegetable garden failed.  My poorly thought out over-wintering method (right concept, wrong method, again see lasagna for the correct method), combined with excessive rain was a perfect nursery for bugs that decimated my garden.

Despite having what I thought were perfect conditions, the majority of my vegetable garden failed.

I decided that I need to SLOW DOWN.  It’s time to focus on my priorities and learn from last year’s failure.  I had too many new gardens going on that my old garden suffered.  I was too focused on my new gardens that I didn’t take the time to identify and correct the plethora of bugs munching and breeding in my garden all spring and summer.

My most valuable lessons from the garden have been my failures.
~Shannon DeAnna Schofield, beekeeper, gardener, poet, author

Gardening is About Problem Solving

There will always be challenges in the garden as in life. Now, I needed to solve mine.

It was time to build up more good soil, make more compost and wage war on the garden pests.

This is important, y’all. Before you spend money on plants and seeds, set the stage for success by being prepared. You’ll want to give those plants the best chance to make it and have combat resources at the ready for the least sign of trouble, for things can get out of hand quickly.

Setting the Stage for a Healthy Garden

I closed my catalogs and opened my Amazon app and ordered some beneficial nematodes and a bag of Diatomaceous Earth (DT).  Next, a trip to the feed store to grab a bag of buckwheat seeds to throw into the empty lot next door. I then called this year’s planning stage complete.

I’ve learned more from failure than I ever have from success. 

I do not welcome or even like failure, but it is most important when it comes to learning, and especially when trying to teach yourself. 

With a learner’s mind and a sense of adventure, you can turn those woes into wows.
~LeAura Alderson, GardensAll.com

I also highly recommend making use of the many free resources available. From your gardening neighbors and farmers, if you’re lucky enough to have them around you, to your local agriculture center, to connect with and learn from the experience of others, accelerates our own lessons from the garden.

I’m also a member of online groups, such as GardensAll and Planting for Retirement on Facebook, where I learn from other’s failures and successes as well. 

Together we can all grow stronger and better.

As my Pop used to say, citing this wise old saying: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Contributions from the Community

I’ve been gardening over 20 years. There’s still things I fail at growing. And it’s not always the same thing.
Jan Michalak Elliott

Contributing Writer, Shannon De’Anna Billings: 

Hey y’all, I’m Shannon, sassy southern gal with a love of gardening and a dream of a mostly sustainable lifestyle. The more I learn, the more I want to learn.

Shannon’s garden flourished this year and she’s making great progress toward her farm dream at Shannon’s Sweet Tooth Farm. She’s actively expanding her gardening each year and has also become a beekeeper. She’s also now a published author, working on her second book from the perspective of a feral dog she rescued. You can find Shannon’s author and poetry page, Perfectly Imperfect, on Facebook.

Thanks to Shannon for sharing her lessons from the garden. If you’d like to share your lessons from the garden, we’d love to hear from you.

For an inspirational garden journal with images and quotes by members of the GardensAll community, you may enjoy The Wisdom Journal. Or, for a free 30 day goals journal PDF, you can download that here.