Sometimes you just need Pesticide!

My pumpkins are dying. Two months in, the leaves are yellow around the edges, one would think it was the heat, putting some strain on the poor babies. From the looks of one of the 11 pumpkins I planted, in a few weeks, the other ten like that one, may not make it.

To be fair, in my reading up on 'how to grow pumpkins from seed', I saw something about pests that follow when a plant germinates from the ground. The pests like me, are looking for food from the plant that's at the early stage of its life. The difference between us though, is that I get to consume the fruit much later on in the cycle - if it makes it.  Bugs, ants, flies that can inhibit the pumpkin plant's growth, never mind that, I was more interested in the seeing the green shoot out from beneath the soil. I wanted to see the transition from seed, to seedling, to plant, to fruit. I neglected to put as much study into the need to protect the plant from other things that want something from it.

It reminds me a little bit of life. When we set out to do something new, something in the early stages excites us about the journey ahead. The beginnings of the fruit of our labor, whether its that first chord progression we master in the first month of learning the guitar. Sometimes it's that first kg we lose on our journey to get into shape. But there's a point we plateau and sometimes it's because other things are demanding attention from the same energy source that's stirring us along on our journey to wherever we've set our minds to. We never thought about what we'd do when other things came. When the pests, or someone wants to go out for a coffee during the guitar practice time, or when there's a deadline to meet that's clashing with the work out we had planned to shed those pounds. What do we do then? I suppose we could decide what matters and prioritize. We adapt and plan around whatever needs us at the time so we don't compromise the goal. Or, we just buy pesticide and spray then heck on those plants to get rid of those pests, because if I let their needs infringe on my plant's needs, my plant won't make it. Sometimes you just need pesticide people. No messing around.

Sometimes you simply need to kill the things that are sucking the life out of you and preventing you from moving forward. I know my pumpkins need that. 

Now to find some environmentally friendly pest deterrents, so I don't hurt myself or the soil in the process, because I want to be eating pumpkin in two months.