Dear Garden Enthusiasts,

The perfect garden. A bit of a ridiculous concept, really. It conjures up visions of straight rows heavy with flawless red tomatoes, gleaming purple eggplants, and not a single weed in sight. Every leaf is intact, every cucumber perfectly shaped. No holes, nibbles, or yellowing.

Each summer around now, I receive messages from concerned gardeners wondering what they did wrong and how to fix it. In truth, tomatoes take a really (like really, really) long time to ripen. Cucumbers seem to record every rainfall in their shape. And if you’ve followed along with me for any time at all, you know that insect activity is good!

I’d like to invite you to redefine what perfection looks like in the garden. It’s a living, contributing, benefiting part of a thriving ecosystem. We all want overflowing harvest baskets, but the path to that abundance comes from allowing a natural balance to prevail. Do less. Harvest lots.

This month, we’re exploring two things that often feel like they’ve gone “wrong” in the garden. And I don’t use quotation marks lightly. Perfection in the garden isn’t a myth, but we’ve been defining it all wrong.

Warmly,
Kiera