Tuesday, July 20, 2004

How does your garden grow?

Six hours to weed my garden --  that's what it took on Saturday.  I can't even describe the pain I had after spending all that time hunched over the crabgrass.  At least four times, my husband said, "check the corn".  I told him it wasn't ready quite yet -- but soon.
 
Yesterday, I went to the garden to spread mulch and pick cucumbers for pickling.  Every decent ear of corn had been stripped halfway down and eaten.  With the space I have I can only manage 4 small rows, maybe 10 feet each -- but every stalk in my view had been munched on.
 
I salvaged what I could (maybe that's where "cobettes" come from?) and pulled the rest out.  All that's left are some sad looking green peppers, my very abundant cucumber and cantaloupe.  The tomatoes are coming on nicely, except for the fungus problems.  I'm hoping they will survive since I know that in good years I can keep tomatoes until December (assuming they're picked green and stored carefully).  And I've had two terriible years of tomatoes.
 
Gardening is a good metaphor for Christian life: feed and water, uproot what's harmful, take measures to keep bad stuff from invading and undoing all your hard work. Be willing to spend some time on it.  If you tend your garden carefully you'll have plentiful life and lots of fruit. 
 
And, of course, when your efforts fail, you can always replant.  In place of my half eaten corn, I think I'll try green beans or beets.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hello, thank you for the bithday wishes, something weird happened with blogger and your post went away, first there were 2 then there were none! but i did see it and read it thank you. thanks also for thinking enough of my "blog" to link to it i noticed that you did. and yes i love my birthday!