My mother, like many mothers, has a lot of sayings; gentle and sometimes not so gentle reminders of how to handle life’s curveballs. My favorite saying of hers is “don’t sweat the small stuff.”
I am aware that she “borrowed” this phrase, but its aptness is all too clear in many circumstances, including gardening situations.
Our Bing Cherry Tree
For example, we have a VERY tall cherry tree. It’s gorgeous and bears copious quantities of sweet, juicy Bing cherries. We love the cherries and so do the birds; hordes of them. At first it vexed us. The birds were gobbling up all our fruit.
Now if the tree had been pruned down (it hadn’t) we could have used some netting to protect the fruit. So herein the ism “don’t sweat the small stuff” comes in handy. In reality, the tree produces far more cherries than we can eat, so just let the birds have their fair share.
Cherry Pruning
Another apropos saying might be “don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” Ben Franklin spewed that gold nugget, and it’s great advice not to put things off until too late. If we had pruned the cherry tree to a reasonable size we would be able to cover it with netting. Live and learn. I like that one too!
There are so many metaphors for life that are applicable in the garden. You can weed and still be growing. Sometimes a plant needs to move for one reason or another and sometimes we do too. Plants need light, air and nutrients as do we.
Some is better than nothing; so say I when half my veggie garden has died. You have to be willing to put the work in. Gardens are a lot of work but what you reap is what you sow.
Gardens are ever evolving. There is death and birth and everything in between. Such is life.
