10/9/2018 0 Comments The GardenFor neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
1 Corinthians 3:7 In February, I was asked if I would like to help with a bit of gardening at the non-profit where I volunteer. They already had plans for moving the community garden to Edmond and some assistance was needed. I carefully considered the idea of being a part of this project for 2-3 whole seconds before agreeing to do what I could to help. I honestly wasn’t sure what was needed, but I had some ideas, and God had a plan! The great thing about starting a new garden is you are basically given a blank space to plan the ultimate oasis for your plants. Our blank slate had four storage buildings, a greenhouse, and an awesome stone path already on it so we had to get really creative with the placement of our new raised beds. No problem, we are resourceful people. God would provide the inspiration, we just needed to provide the perspiration. We enlisted the help of a wonderful young man who was needing a project to obtain the rank of Eagle in Boy Scouts. After several months of planning, Ryan showed up with a small army of volunteers and an entire lumber yard and got to work. The frenzy of activity that took place that afternoon was incredible. Some people built the beds while others struggled with the strawberry tower and still others moved the structures into place. Dirt was shoveled, wheelbarrows were rolled, and seedlings were planted. At the end of the day, creative chaos and hard work had paid off and we had a garden! As great as the first day of construction went, the realization hit that was enough room for even more plants, so the crew got busy and installed an additional five beds. Yikes! That brought the number of raised beds in the garden to thirteen, how would we possibly fill them all? Good thing I made a slight error in ordering the garden soil because we had an ample amount for all the beds; and we had a greenhouse brimming with seedlings waiting to be placed in their forever homes to accompany the dirt. We were set! Once the plants were in the ground, the work really started. We couldn’t just let our little sprouts rough the crazy heat that Oklahoma summers bring so the installation of an irrigation system was the next item on the list. Sandy and I took a little field trip to the local home improvement store and purchased a few items that the somewhat sullen plumbing expert told us we needed to make the odd assortment of soaker hoses work for our garden. Much trial and error and more then a little brute strength later, and we had our sprinkler system in place. Things got a little dicey when some of the staff at the non-profit left for Africa. Our plants were going crazy and for the vertical garden concept to truly work, we needed more trellises. Sadly, “The Great Trellis Debacle of 2018” took out several peppers and maybe the spaghetti squash that was resting on it. But we survived that little battle with gravity and prevailed. Unfortunately, the issue with the spaghetti squash was more than just a lack of a trellis. The ultimate garden nemesis, the squash borer, had won the battle for our squash this year. But I will live to fight again, its just too bad that our little squash seedlings won’t. As the season wore on the plants took off, we were amazed with the how well they were growing in somewhat questionable soil. It was a true testament to the power of God. I simply planted some seeds and God was doing the heavy lifting. He was honoring our work in an amazing way! First the beans and Swiss Chard started producing. Quickly, we figured out that Swiss chard tastes a lot like the dirt it grows in and, as pretty as it is, its better left to the rabbits that choose to nest under the shed. The beans, well, they were beans; delicious, fresh, and tasty! After that, we harvested cantaloupes, cucumbers, and more basil than we could possibly use. Once the temps of summer amped up, our heat loving veggies exploded. We had peppers, okra and tomatoes out the wazoo! It was glorious, until the tomatoes started producing more stems than fruit, it was time to step up our pruning game. In order to maintain healthy and productive tomato plants a little work is involved, and it starts with snipping off the extraneous sprouts. Tomatoes are a vine that love and need support. They also need direction and guidance, and its up to the gardener to provide it. And while I was busy working on the plants, I saw the parallel with the way God takes care of us. With plants, its easy to see the suckers that peek from between the main stem and the leaves when they first form. A quick pinch with your fingers and they are gone. Occasionally, the little off shoots aren’t caught immediately, and they grow into a secondary stem that can be just as prolific as the first. Most tomatoes can maintain two to three main stems without diminished fruit production. Its when they are allowed to grow in an unmaintained fashion that fruit size is diminished and slowed. Prudent pruning is necessary to increase the harvest. It’s like that in our lives too. Little distractions pop up all the time and sometimes we recognize them for what they are and eliminate them as they come. Sometimes we let them grow into the withered branches that never produce anything useful yet suck our energy. Other times we let the stems grow thinking that the little bit of good produced from them is the goal we are seeking, but the energy they suck from us causes everything we do to be weakened. We never really get the best because we are content with good enough. Most of the time, that’s what we settle for in our lives. Over the last season of my life, God has been pruning a lot of the things that had at one time been semi productive branches. Sometimes, the paring away of the old activities hurt. I miss the activities and events of an active family; empty nest syndrome can be hard. But now I have more time to pursue a calling I never before envisioned. Unlike tomatoes in the garden though, I have the choice to let the unnecessary go or attempt to graft the cut back onto my life. And even though God is the best gardener ever, he’ll let us do it. He won’t force us to take the next step, he will let us live in the good when he is offering us better. We must trust his cuts and grow in the garden where he has planted us. It’s really that simple. The metaphorical garden of my life is becoming less jungle like and more closely resembles the hint of God’s direction, but its still easy to let what resembles a healthy branch take off and take over our time. The test of the shoot is in the fruit; are we settling for the mediocre or grabbing at greatness? It’s our choice. The earthly garden is rapidly approaching the end of its growing season. Soon, all of the plants will stop producing and it will be time to start new seedlings in the green house. I believe that God will honor our efforts with another spectacular year of botanical abundance. But my life and my calling never have a dormant season, or at least they shouldn’t. So I pray that God blesses the garden I have planted and the garden of my heart because I no longer want to settle for the good when the best is within my grapse.
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AuthorI am a Christian, a wife, a mom, and a part-time basket case who wants to be a full time writer.
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