12) How Do Seasons Benefit Us and Why is it Important?

 

Living By the Seasons 

By Sindy Wakeham

With the weather changed to blustery, cold and more often than not, very wet, being outside and gardening is not where you want to be.

It’s our natural cycle to respond to the patterns of the seasons and perform applicable activities. We're normally indoors processing and storing our harvests from the garden and preparing for letting the garden sleep over winter ready for the next growing season while we 'hibernate' from the cold.

Modern understanding and growing methods has shortened that ‘hibernation’ period for those of us who cannot bear to be away from the soil for a whole winter, which in the UK can feel like 6 months!

For those of us who simply HAVE to be able to garden all year round, there’s always a way.

Year Round Gardening

We can make hot beds like the Victorians and now we can even grow indoors with grow towers designed for indoor gardening.

We can make tunnel cloches over vegetable beds or cover them in plastic and construction netting as I mentioned in the last blog here.

Extending the Seasons

We can now have polycrubs which are way more efficient than polytunnels and greenhouses and are a hybrid between the two but are covered in polycarbonate sheeting instead of glass or softer sheet plastic. They stand up to very high winds and weather so help to extend the season even in bad weather. I have one on my mental wish list!

With more varieties of vegetables and plants available, there are many plants that overwinter just fine in the ground with minimal protection (depending on where you are in the UK). I even have veg in the beds over winter that can stay there until needed or kept for the ‘hungry gap’. Veg like leeks, parsnips, kale, winter cabbages and if I was better prepared, I could have had some broad beans or Brussels sprouts too.

Perennial vegetables and fruits are popular again as we try to garden in more natural and permanent way.  It’s October and I have Chilean guavas and late raspberries only just ripening.

So there are loads of options for year round growing, but is it the best idea to keep growing all rear round without a break?

My favourite scripture on seasons is Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, verses 1 and 2 (Eccl 3:1&2).

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted...”

As I've said, we now have an extended growing season which is great! It’s important to remember that just because we CAN do something, it doesn’t mean we SHOULD.

The Importance of a Rest Season

Nature itself/herself has a rest period, a short space during the winter months. Animals change their patterns during the winter. Some hibernate, others take on winter coats to withstand the cold and change what they eat.

People sleep at night to rest and recover. It is in fact at night that human cells repair. It's one of the reasons sleep is so important. During the winter we naturally tend to crave and eat warmer and wetter foods because we don’t want to drink cold water to hydrate when it’s cold. We crave higher energy foods to keep warm. Even the human body knows changes needed for the times and seasons.

The soil rests when a crop is harvested and another plant sown to restore lost nutrients and left ‘fallow’ for a bit. We understand today that crop rotations can also restore the soil between different plant harvests. We can intercrop with companion plants to do the same all year round.

There is something to be said for the change of pace during each season. Have you felt the energy boost that comes in the autumn helping us prepare for the winter, to prepare our homes and store cupboards. We naturally feel a need to rearrange ready for decorating and celebrations that help stave off the seasonal affective disorder we in the northern hemisphere are prone to.

Come New Year there is another mental energy preparing us for newness. We prepare for a new start having ‘rested’ during the winter months. After winter regeneration, comes the spring energy when we naturally (or usually) feel a need to clean and clear out after a long winter indoors. We air the linen and bedding on drier warmer days, throw open the windows to let out the stuffy air and let in fresh air.

We can change our activities for each season to help prepare our gardens and ourselves for the next season and all the blessings that come from them.

I know well the drain on a person’s health and mind when steaming ahead like a freight train chasing the to-do list. One season and one year blends into another and it's exhausting!

I don’t stress about what I haven’t planted or a project I haven’t completed in time anymore. I accept and celebrate what I have been able to achieve and anticipate the blessings and activities that lie ahead. I focus on gratitude for each season and what it brings.

A change of pace and the things we do in each will have a profound effect on our seasonal wellbeing and on the garden's productivity.

That’s what I want you to take from this article. Will you contemplate what you have gained from the last season and what you anticipate for the next? Will you accept the beauty of a rest season in your day, season or year?

Give yourself seasons to garden, seasons to put up and store away the harvests and rest from your labours, to arise again energised and ready for even more bounties.

I can’t wait to hear from you.