Great Lessons Learned from Indigo Fields II
The indigo fields this year are in a terrible state... I wrote about this in my blog the other day .
About 20 days have passed since then, and some parts of the fields are thriving, with some areas ready for the first cutting in early August, as usual.
The rainy season has returned, with continuous rain, and the temperature is a bit high and humid, so it seems to be just the kind of weather indigo likes.
Oh, if he was feeling this well, I wish I had tried harder to manage other parts of my body as well...but it's too late now to think that.
In the fields where we were unable to cover with plastic mulch, we worked harder than ever to weed, but the grass weeds were so severe that they probably took away all the moisture, and both the indigo and marigolds are not doing well.
I thought that not using mulch would be closer to the natural environment, but perhaps the environment in Itoshiro was just too cold for Ai.
That said, records from the Taisho era state that indigo was cultivated, so we can only imagine that in an era before mulch, they must have had their uphill struggles and made many ingenious efforts.
The main reason for the failure of the indigo field this time was my lack of trust in indigo. I wish I had trusted indigo, these tiny seeds, more.
The tiny seedling at the beginning was unsteady, and at that point I may have had given up.
This may be true not just of indigo but of everything.
Trusting nature, and even more so, believing in yourself. And moving forward without giving up. I realized that these were the things that were lacking this time.
I knew in my head that it's important not to give up, but experiencing it through this experience was a great learning experience.
The power of nature is amazing. So even when I gave up, the power of nature made it grow. That only exposed my own lack of trust.
Growing plants can only be done once a year, so I can't immediately start doing this or that right now, and I'll have to restart next spring. It's frustrating, but I'm going to leave it to the cycle and life force of nature and do what I can now.
I am excited to continue enjoying indigo cultivation, and I look forward to thinking about how I can make things even better next year, and the year after that.
