ROOPHLOCH 2024: A minimum viable garden
I’m writing this on my laptop in my backyard, the minimum viable ROOPHLOCH post.
I just finished watering my minimum viable garden. After my family moved into our new home, I promised that I would start gardening... “eventually”. But as I suppose is not uncommon for folks with ADHD, I’m a Big Talker and Bigger Putter-Offer; I can plan and scheme about a cool project for months — or even years — and never get around to starting it. But two months ago, I ate a particularly delicious melon, and decided on a lark to plant its seeds. Now I have some well-developed melon plants, and after planting additional kitchen scraps, I have carrots and garlic growing too. I also started watering a neglected dragonfruit plant that was already here, and it’s fruit are nearly ready to be picked.
I’m not sure if anything else will grow enough to harvest now that the midday sun is lower and the plants are getting less direct light. But that doesn’t matter, now I have my first lesson as well as a garden: if these plants don’t make it through the winter (I don’t have to worry about frost but I do have to think about slugs and snails and whether these things can handle too much water), I’ll start next year’s melons earlier, just as the rainy season winds down.
As someone with an inclination for pipe dreams, I’m continually surprised by this lesson: doing the bare minimum RIGHT NOW is almost always better than waiting for the perfect moment to start something. I have a garden. I am a gardener. I wouldn’t be able to say this if I waited until I got around to making a plan.
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