Core Insight
Late September at Iron Mountain Organics is a season of both harvesting and clearing.
Some of the summer plants that produced faithfully for months have reached the end of their season. It can be tempting to leave them in the garden a little longer, especially when I can still find an occasional pepper, tomato, or bean. But there comes a point when holding onto the old crop gets in the way of what needs to grow next.
Clearing a bed is not the most exciting work on the farm. I pull out tired plants, remove weeds, add compost, and prepare the soil. For a short time, the bed actually looks less productive because there is nothing growing in it. Yet that empty space is progress.
I think organizations need this kind of work too. We are usually much better at starting things than at stopping them. We add meetings, reports, processes, tools, and priorities. Each may have been useful when we started it, but over time they can take up space that could go to something more important.
Sometimes productivity is not about figuring out what else to do. It is about intentionally clearing some space.
Three Concrete Details to Notice
1. Something can have been valuable and still be finished
A summer plant may have produced hundreds of vegetables, but that does not mean I should keep it forever. The same can be true of a meeting, process, metric, or responsibility. Ending it does not mean it was a bad idea. It may simply have served its season.
2. Empty space can look unproductive
A freshly cleared garden bed does not look very impressive. But I know what that space makes possible. Leaders sometimes need to create margin before they know exactly what will fill it.
3. Clearing is part of the system, not a failure of it
Removing old plants is not separate from growing vegetables. It is part of growing vegetables. I wonder if organizations would benefit from making that same kind of clearing a regular practice. Periodically ask what should be stopped, simplified, or removed before adding something new.
Simple Closing Thought
Look at your calendar, your team’s priorities, or the systems you use every week. Is there something still taking up space simply because it has always been there?
Maybe it produced something valuable in its season. And maybe the next season needs that space.
Keep growing. Keep learning.
Farmer Tommy
This post first appeared on October 2, 2026 in Sowing Success, my weekly LinkedIn newsletter on leadership and organic farming. Read the original on LinkedIn.
