My veg garden taught me some good life lessons this month: don’t be hasty, don’t make assumptions, embrace the imperfect and have faith in the process. 

When I started my veg garden about 3 years ago, I had visions of a picture-perfect kitchen garden. You know the kind of thing: rows of multi-coloured, hole-free, sumptuous lettuces, interspersed with marigolds and nasturtiums. A feast for the eyes, as well as the table. 

The reality turned out to be a bit different.

I hadn’t accounted for slugs, caterpillars, hungry wood pigeons, flea beetles, vine weevils, the wind, frosts, torrential rain, scorching sun and bouts of drought. I soon came to realise that all these things make it almost impossible for the average veg grower to achieve the kind of perfection I had envisaged.

As a self-confessed perfectionist, with major control freak tendencies, high levels of impatience and a big love of aesthetics as well as food, that’s hard to swallow. 

But I’ve been slowly relinquishing control. Trusting nature and the natural process of things more. And I’ve been testing how far I can push myself in simply leaving things be.

Last year, I decided to see whether the wild rocket that I planted the previous summer would regrow for the following spring – and give me another crop for less effort. By January, all I had was a patch of tangled, brown, twiggy mess. It looked for all the world like the rocket was dead. And the temptation to clear it out and start again was overwhelming. Wouldn’t it be better to have a clear, freshly-mulched veg bed, ready for spring, instead..? 

But I left it alone. Didn’t touch it. By February, it looked worse. But then, in March, green shoots appeared. And now, almost overnight, I have a great flush of leaves. Plenty to provide generous salads for the coming weeks. And the taste is better than last year. Get in!!

So, I’m going to experiment more with letting things go in the veg garden. And also think about other areas of my life where I could – if I’m honest, and push myself – let things take their own course a bit more. Where I could stop interfering, and let things be.

And just wait. And see what happens.