2022 Review: Most missed vegetables

Accepting unplanned abundance and absence is the ultimate goal.

Absence can be a perennial thorn in our sides. We grow something once, and then when it’s not here come summer, even with a conscience decision to take a year off, it still sometimes nags at our hearts. What we do with these pangs of regret is key to how we can enjoy our gardens fully each year. I have worked hard to develop a love of each season for what it is. The garden is not meant to be a rubber stamp, a replicable and reliable assembly line that churns out bushels of food without incidence. It’s meant to yield unique and dynamic results that keep us curious, humble, and excited for more. The choices we make in going into relationship with the specific seeds and plants reflects our mood and desire of the time when we set those intentions. There are always off-plan tomatoes that get seeded here, and I’ll safely say it will happen again in winter and I will regret it come August. Other than tomatoes, I have become more at home with the unpredictability of gardening. As the seasons pass, I become more at peace with the absence and abundance of food that inevitably varies season to season. What I miss most is that the same intentions never yield the same results. So do I stay the course or chart a new one? That is a question I continue to grapple with, sometimes giving into the the newness of an unexplored garden and other times leaning into a previously tried and true planting plan that very well may produce ideally once again. The aspirational zen gardener in me wants to arrive at a place of complete acceptance of each season as how the season was always meant to unfold: disease pressure, surprise gluttonous harvests, and an eternally novel balance of food included.