0:13

If you're

0:13

like me, you've probably had a

0:15

moment where you kinda wanted

0:17

to just give up on the Gardening didn't

0:19

want to grow the next season, you want to rip your

0:21

beds up and maybe it's out of frustration

0:24

or desperation or despair because

0:26

paster disease, wreck them or whatever

0:28

the case may be. And this episode

0:30

hopefully will set you back

0:32

down the path to growing. We have

0:34

Ashley Thomas back on the show, an

0:36

organic gardener in North Carolina zone

0:38

7BI mean, you must have

0:41

had this experience. Right? Ashley, some sort of

0:43

garden setback in your you what am I doing this

0:45

for? I don't I'm sort of over it.

0:47

Yeah. You know, I think

0:50

it

0:50

was It was really

0:53

when we did not have fencing

0:55

in our And I'm

0:57

gonna tell you, we never had

0:59

deer or rabbits or anything

1:01

like that until we built a

1:03

garden. And it

1:06

was so discouraging because

1:09

I think that first or

1:11

second year, we

1:13

had worked so hard on making sure

1:15

that everything was growing well and

1:18

Next thing we knew, we had a deer

1:20

problem and it would just, like,

1:22

demolish things or the rabbits

1:24

would come in in I I have never

1:26

seen this before. And so we didn't want

1:29

to, you know, harm these animals, but

1:31

it was really quite disturbing, discouraging and

1:33

saying, you know, I don't

1:35

even like, what do we do? Well, how do

1:37

we keep them at bathed?

1:39

Like, they and think at the time

1:41

we had some deer fencing, but they were able

1:43

to to get through that. And

1:45

so it was really just stopping,

1:48

taking

1:48

a moment to breathe, getting over

1:51

that disappointment, doing some

1:53

research on, you know, what

1:55

is best? Like, how do you begin

1:57

to repel some of these things or at least

1:59

keep them

1:59

out of the spaces that, you

2:02

know, we want to preserve for for

2:04

us. And so we we put

2:06

up like physical barriers. We didn't have

2:08

to set out anything crazy, but

2:10

really just

2:11

made us stronger fence.

2:13

And I kind of did this sacrificial

2:16

garden thing where I threw things

2:18

out in the woods for them to eat away

2:20

from our garden. So I

2:22

think it's really just kind of

2:25

addressing setbacks by

2:27

over processing that discouragement,

2:30

but also recognizing what is a solution.

2:32

Focus on the solution. And

2:35

again, like in my book, we had to figure

2:37

out why were we doing this in the first place.

2:39

If it was to be successful at

2:41

you know, what we were doing all the time.

2:43

That's

2:43

the wrong why. The

2:46

why had to be bigger

2:48

than that. The why had to be deeper than that

2:50

and the why

2:50

had to be tied to our values. So

2:53

understanding why we were gardening

2:55

in the first place is what helped us to

2:57

bounce back. Yeah.

2:59

Yeah. I think it's a really good way to phrase

3:01

it. It's it's so unfortunate

3:04

to hear that about the Deere thing, but I am encouraged

3:06

to hear that you did you did sort

3:08

of the decoy Gardening it sounds like

3:10

it worked. Right? It did. We

3:12

haven't seen any deer So

3:15

I think they're

3:15

they know that. Hey, we're gonna look forward

3:17

to some

3:18

food out here in the forest. Yeah.

3:20

So do you still like, what was your protocol

3:22

there? Did you do it on some sort of cadence

3:25

or how did you get

3:27

them to get used to that? So

3:30

it wasn't a a training type

3:32

of thing. It was just they're

3:33

hungry too, just like me.

3:36

But I need to make sure that we

3:38

have our food here and

3:40

that they can access the food that

3:43

they need as well. So

3:45

I know that that sounds a bit

3:47

like,

3:48

okay, we don't have to, you know, feed the world.

3:51

But at the same time, I'm

3:53

kind of in their habitat. We're we're both

3:55

in the same habitat. So the

3:57

least that I could do is, you know,

3:59

try to

3:59

give them something, but, you

4:01

know, far away, I

4:03

don't think that they see, oh, this

4:05

is someone's this is Ashley's Gardening, and I'm

4:07

gonna demolish her garden.

4:08

they're just coming after the food,

4:11

where they get the food.

4:12

I, you know, we figured maybe

4:15

we can control that just a bit. And so

4:17

we started throwing food out in the forest

4:19

away from our garden, and that's

4:21

what they

4:21

address, not our garden. Yeah.

4:25

So smart. I've heard a

4:27

lot of folks that are upset about,

4:29

you know, squirrels. And

4:32

I've said you know, just make a squirrel garden

4:34

that's far enough away that -- Yeah. --

4:36

that's where they end up playing and put a

4:38

squirrel feeder and stuff there and is

4:40

there certain pests that are just too difficult

4:42

to to beat? I

4:44

mean, you either cover your entire which

4:47

is a hassle, or you or

4:49

you just accept that they're gonna be there. So some of these

4:51

decoys, it's a great idea. Yeah.

4:53

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah.

4:55

Do you have any sort of

4:59

practical tip of of someone who

5:01

wants to get back in. Maybe maybe Gardening

5:03

know, imagine your garden as as laid bare

5:05

for like a year. something. You missed

5:07

this. You sat this season out. What

5:09

would you say to someone who's in that situation?

5:12

Yeah. I, you know,

5:15

would

5:15

say get connected if possible

5:17

to other

5:17

growers. You have you've heard of

5:19

that saying birds of a feather flock together.

5:22

Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's that's

5:24

kind of you start to feed off of each

5:26

other. When you're around other people that are

5:28

enthusiastic about growing

5:29

and they're talking about their plans, you start

5:32

to kind of passively envision

5:34

your space. You know?

5:36

And if you

5:37

are just not feeling the whole growing

5:39

thing, You might even just say, you know

5:41

what? I'm actually gonna start smaller

5:43

maybe to get back into it. Get

5:46

connected. Get connected with other

5:48

growers. And the next is, you

5:50

know, simply understand

5:52

why. I I was,

5:54

you know, kinda I'm in a in a social

5:56

media gardening group.

5:58

And then a person asked

5:59

recently

6:01

a question to the entire group. He said, you know,

6:04

I

6:05

just not feeling gardening anymore.

6:07

And, you know, I just

6:08

kind of lost the enthusiasm. And I

6:10

wanted to understand what everyone else's

6:12

why was. And I thought that was such a

6:14

great question because, you

6:16

know,

6:16

that is how I started off

6:18

my book is finding your

6:20

why.

6:22

even if it's just, well, maybe I

6:24

just want a plant to take care of. I don't

6:26

wanna do too much. that

6:29

helps you to understand exactly what's

6:31

within your feasible like, what's

6:33

what's feasible for you? What's

6:34

gonna be practical for you. Maybe you had

6:36

a life change. And

6:39

it's okay to to

6:41

to pause. It's okay to,

6:43

you know, slow down.

6:46

This is your journey.

6:47

It's your journey.

6:49

No one else's journey. You

6:51

are a guard there still. And I

6:53

think giving or allowing ourselves

6:55

permission to, you know, we don't

6:57

have to keep up with the Joneses on, you

6:59

know, and I need to go really

7:01

big or go home. You don't.

7:03

Actually, you can stick with

7:05

one or two or three plants or just

7:07

maybe one or two garden beds or

7:10

one pot, it it is completely

7:12

up to you. And I think it's

7:14

really just giving people permission to

7:17

walk your journey the way you want to.

7:21

It's

7:21

okay. Yeah.

7:22

That's a good way to put it. I mean, yeah, I think I'll there's

7:24

there's, like, the comparison trap you could fall

7:26

into in many aspects of life. And, certainly,

7:28

I think, in gardening as well and, you

7:30

know, whatever you wanna do, that's what you're doing.

7:32

And you're not really trying

7:34

to beat your neighbor or whoever you saw

7:36

on the Internet or whatever the case

7:38

may be. So yeah, just kind of refocus. I

7:40

really like it. Alright. Well, more gardening

7:42

with Ashley tomorrow. Stay tuned. Good luck

7:44

in the Gardening, and keep on growing.

7:48

If you're looking for something a little

7:50

more tangible that you can take with you

7:52

into the garden. Check out some of

7:54

our books. Field Guide to Gardening, our

7:57

new release, grow bag gardening, as

7:59

well books

7:59

from some of the authors you've heard on Epic

8:02

gardening podcast can all be

8:04

found on the epic gardening store, which you can

8:06

see in the podcast

8:06

description.