Weekly Letter: Trying is more than nothing

Over the weekend, we had some friends over to get in the pool and eat and enjoy the sunshine. They were very gracious with their compliments of our backyard and how it’s decorated with a tropical theme, complete with silly signs and tropical plants.

But it didn’t start out that way. When we first moved in over 10 years ago, there was barely anything in the backyard. It was a blank slate.

Prior, we lived in an apartment, we hadn’t really thought much about a backyard and what we might do with it. We were so focused on extra space to entertain inside and the ability to have friends stay. Slowly, our focus went outdoors and plants started to get added, bit by bit. We would do the things we could afford like buy the smallest arborvitae-even though we really wanted the immediacy of the larger ones!

We made mistakes, we bought things and didn’t understand how to care for it properly and some things we didn’t expect the dog to destroy. We finished the fence, we replaced the broken drive, we were given things and outgrew them. Hours and hours of digging in dirt, of sweaty evenings looking over our progress as we sip a celebratory beverage.

‘How did you design all this?’ they ask.

‘There’s no design. I try something, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. That’s the approach.’ And over time, some of the seedlings from years prior finally establish and grow with such a fury I kinda forgot they were there to begin with!

Growing a backyard is exactly like the practice. The effort put in, the patience with slow growth. Sure, you can spend thousands of dollars to get a fast-fix. But will it sustain? Or will you just have to spend all that money again and convince yourself ‘this time’ I will follow through. OR you can do the slow work, be safe on the body and allow the roots of consistency to establish themselves in the depths of you-so no matter the weather, they will survive and thrive, blooming large every year.

~Carmen