Plant the seeds

I
LOVE
SPRING!!

In Spring my mind turns to
Gardening!

Every year I add a bit to my gardens. When I first moved in to what used to be my grandparents house, I put all my grandmother's gardens back in. Then I pulled up raspberry bushes and planted additional gardens. At that time I had no interest in vegetables so flower gardens surround my home.

A few years ago for my birthday, my father built me these raised beds. They are FANTASTIC. Every year they fill up with tomatoes, beets, carrots, garlic, herbs, a few peas...The peas were my downfall. I adore fresh peas and my son loves to pick and eat them by the handful. So I began to think what I really needed was a bigger garden like the one my grandfather use to have on this property. I remember long rows of peas and beans and cucumbers and a beautiful pantry of canned goods...how romantic. This weekend the fantasy hit the shovel. I began turning the sod in my future vegetable garden. I began turning it because a previous attempt (pictured above left) to suffocate the grass proved to be only an incubator and frost protector for very large dandelions. I did not want to use pesticides and I did want to keep the organic material from the grass (minus the seeds) so I found an online solution that seems to be working. I cut and turn the sod upside down, cover it with cardboard or plywood, and in a few weeks I will rototill it all into a gorgeous vegetable garden. Albeit one much smaller than originally planned.

The thing I love most about making this garden is having Clayton's help. By this I mean both my grandfather Clayton who got this plot originally free from huge rocks, and my son who is wonderfully adept at worm relocation. The lessons my grandfather passed on to me, I now pass on to my son. For me this is what gardening is all about, linking generations, passing on knowledge, working with the earth and learning about faith and miracles.

Planting seeds and trusting that they will become plants and flowers is a work of faith. It is a miracle that a tiny seed can grow into a 9 ft sunflower. If the tiny seeds we plant in the earth can grow to become larger that we are, if they can burst forth with fruit and flower, what amazing things can grow in the gardens of our lives if we will but plant the seeds?