It is always difficult to face failure and I have been postponing this time for a long time but I can't deny it any more. The first project of my farming adventure, the one my partner and I started with unlimited enthusiasm and huge expectations six years ago, is an indisputable flop.
If you are new to my blog let me remind you that Fotini (my partner) and I, left from the city of Athens in 2014 leaving behind our friends, our home and our jobs in order to move to a small village at the island of Crete and follow a rural lifestyle. Our knowledge about farming, homesteading or even gardening was less than minimal but that didn't stopped us from diving into this new adventure with all our energy and benevolence.
We gave up on this project about three years ago and we haven't watered the plants ever since but it was only today that I found the courage to go there again and disconnect the irrigation system facing, at the same time, the fact that it is actually over. The images of abandonment are sad but I needed to go through that in order to close that chapter and move on.
Has it ever happen to you to receive a piece of knowledge but you only realize what was all about many days/weeks/months or even years, later? Well that's exactly what happened to us. Our intention was to create a food forest, only we didn't even knew that it was called with that name :)
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We planted dozens kinds of seeds, cuttings and nursery plants but today very few are still alive. Quince trees are the only ones that survived and are growing, although in a very slow rate. Macadamia died but some new branches are popping out from the ground, citrus are 2 inches tall and some of the apricot trees are still trying (unsuccessfully) to surpass the bushes around them. Taking pictures of five years old trees usually does not require a macro lens but unfortunately this was the case for the most of these.
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The picture below is closer to the reality. Not much of a food forest! So what went wrong?
Well I am not fluent enough in English to tell you all about it but first of all we blame our ignorance. A lot of times we remember the tragic mistakes we did on this first attempt and we laugh to ourselves. Those poor plants didn't had a chance on this environment we put them in, the way we did it and our poor selves tried so hard for nothing.
Actually I was surprised that some of them are still fighting for their lives and I even had a couple of very unexpected surprises. Like the parsley that we only planted once, six years ago and still seeds and reproduces itself and a sweet scented geranium that I found in full blossom! I remind you, no watering for the last three years on the hot and dry climate of east Crete! And of course all the volunteer plants like dandelion and rockrose as well as some trees that are growing on their own, are doing just fine without our intervention.
So was it all in vain?
Definitely not!
We may never achieved the desired result from this specific attempt but we gained in knowledge and experience and I like to think that it was part of the path that we had to walk to find ourselves to the point we are today!
And no matter what, the olive trees will always be there :)
All the pictures and the words are mine.
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
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