I’ve written several gardening metaphors for business and family. Right now, I don’t have another one in me. But where I’m at may be one anyway.

We’ve gardened out here for three years. Two years did ok, and last year was a complete flop. A combination of weather, lack of water, and deer left us with very little in the way of anything edible that came from the garden. We had the deer under control the last year, but then part of the back fence had to come down and that put an end to that. Add to that the fact that just as the lettuce started to come in, I discovered that lettuce no longer liked me. Neither did most of the early greens. I could still tolerate spinach then, but cannot now.

So there are few things we can grow here that I can actually eat. And many of the things that do grow, do so poorly, and require an extremely high maintenance to do so.

I tried hydroponics. I can only grow things I cannot eat, and they end up being prohibitively expensive.

We tried a greenhouse. The summer is so hot, and the sun so brutal (high altitude) that the plants just cook inside there in the summer. Moving them in and out is just not feasible if you want any significant amount of plants, and that is what we’d have to do spring and fall, because the days are too hot in the greenhouse, and the nights are too cold outside.

So I’m about done. I haven’t decided whether to garden this year or not. I may decide to put in broccoli and nothing else. I may decide not do even do that.

Our church counsels that we plant a garden. And so I want to do it. I need so many fresh veggies that I really NEED to be able to grow some of them. But I’m just thinking that I really can’t do what I need in Wyoming. Where THAT particular observation will lead us, we don’t quite know yet. But I think it is beyond significant.

I know some people end up feeling this way about other areas of their life. It works for other people, but a series of challenges combine to simply not make it worth the doing. When I reach a point like this, I always consider a few things:

• How important is it to me?
• What are the variables I can adjust?

The answers on this one are things I can’t do anything about this year. But I’m laying plans for being able to garden, somewhere, a few years from now. Because it is important to me.

I just don’t think I can do it right now.