Gardening

Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there.
~Thomas Fuller, 1732

The youngest children get the short end of the stick don't they? When Jordan [now 15] was little, one of her favorite things was to meander through the garden eating a snow pea, a tomato, or a cucumber. The strawberries & dewberries were her favorites...talk about fresh! Jacob has been cheated. He is 7 and knows almost nothing of a garden (but he knows every MarioKart course by name)...We have officially been 'too busy' to plant, tend, and harvest. Oh, we have the yearly Tomato vines, but that's about all. I talk about it every year, I think about it every year, but you know, there is (home)school, volleyball, soccer, girl scout cookie sales, church fellowships, meetings, Iron Chef, and about a billion other things claiming a portion of our attention. So yesterday, once again the soil was torn asunder by shovel and rake...and we will have a garden.

Gardens give such great opportunities to learn about God and life (I know, I know, so do sports, girl scouts & even TV occasionally...yada, yada, yada). Simple, profound lessons. You plant and don't harvest until many weeks, or months later...what a shock in our TIVO'd, microwaved, buy-now & pay-later world! Food you grow just tastes better. Participating in life instead of watching it on YouTube. Which is the "business end" of a shovel. You can grow a lot of food in a small area, but don't crowd the plants too much, they need their space. Even with meticulous attention and care, some of it dies anyway. Mother Nature is mean. Chicken poop, which stinks & is disgusting to us is a delicacy to veggies...hmmm. There are good bugs and bad bugs. It's not so hot at 6:30am and a sunrise is really cool to see occasionally. Sometimes the very thing we do to help, hurts. Mistakes. Weeds are persistent little vexations. It's really ok with mom for me to get dirty. Whistle while you work. Even with neglect some of it lives. Mother nature is kind. There is a difference in an herb and a weed [ask Cari for that story...], dirt doesn't taste good, but produces things which do. The same soil will grow fruit or weeds either one, plant one or the other will grow. Without water, even the healthiest plants will die. Nature hates bare ground and will try to cover it with something so use lots of mulch and you'll cut your gardening work by 70%...Patience, Tolerance, Discretion, Non-Judgmentalism, Attitude, Diligence, Compassion (remember Jonah's vine?), Mistakes, Vigilance, Work-ethic, Death, Attentiveness, Wisdom...

So, our plan is simple and the garden small (roughly 30x30). Turn the soil with shovel & rake (no tillers allowed) into planting beds separated by walking paths. We have what they call 'blackland' which is heavy, black clay (none of the beautiful loam you see on HGTV) so we'll need to mix in compost & rotting organic matter. We will lay soaker hoses in the plant beds and cover that with about 12 - 18 inches of hay mulch (thanks Steve & Ahnna!) We will lean toward the organic side but I'm not too much of a hippie to use a bit of Miracle-Grow where I deem it appropriate (I also occasionally take vitamins myself).

I intend to share some of these lessons with my children this year in our garden and see what we can grow out there besides plants...stay tuned.