Different, not conflicting

I suppose that working together on any project, especially over years, involves having a certain level of splitsville. Since you are different people, you are bound to have different ideals. Well, that goes, even when you marry your best friend and have the same overarching values in life. The good thing is, the goals don't have to conflict, and can, in the end,  be complimentary.

This year, one of my goals for the garden is to make it more attractive. Right now, since we believe in repurposing and have access to all sorts of useful junk on the property, we haven't really needed to buy many things. We have wood for tripods and fencing to keep critters out, not to mention all the hay and newspaper we can shake a stick at! We are also trying our hand at no-till, which means that (especially in the beds) the weeds can get a little out of control, while we focus our efforts on more useful tasks. These things combined, however, adds up to our garden (especially in a dry April) looking like a big,  fenced-in junk pile! There are piles of 2x4s and tomato cages and weed benches and old scraggly vines hanging out all over the place! It really doesn't look like we put any effort into the thing, when in reality, it's pretty all-consuming these days.

It may be one of those things where I notice it and no one else would. Like when you go over someone's house and they apologize up and down for their mess and the whole time you're thinking that you wish you could keep your house that clean? (or does that just happen to me?)

Here's the thing, though. It doesn't matter if anyone else thinks it's a junk pile. I do. And guess where I don't want to spend my time? That's right, a junk pile. My running theory is that if I make the place more attractive (even just to me), then I will be more willing to spend my time there- and more willing to get some other serious jobs done.

My big first step in this goal was to fix the snakiary (for the snakes), so it looks less like a junky pile of rocks in the corner. There is a Zen-Buddhist quality of arranging rocks. In fact, when I was in Korea, the Buddhist temple I visited had rock sculptures all over the place. It was magical and wonderful while being normal and phallic all in one go.

Well, if anyone can my garden phallic, it's me. Here's to another year with new goals.