Water While There is Time
As summer announces its imminent arrival with warmer weather, and as our move looms closer, I am not doing much gardening, except watering. Also, knowing, come mid-July there just might be a completely new layout restrains my urge to plant and transplant.
Why bother, I grinch . . . Bother, because I still can — there is time!
Early morning is an agreeable time to exercise this necessary chore. Oh! The quiet joy of a summery breeze, the sound of water refreshing what survived the winter.* . . . I can’t give up the simple care I can do in the remaining days – because I really like it.
Bother, because gardening was the first of all jobs designed for us – that we blew because what we wanted seemed preferable to following instructions! (Genesis 2-3) Following instructions – without inserting my own personal preferences – is a lesson learned the hard way in each of my gardens, as well as this autumn’s garden time of life
Over the past few years, I’ve enjoyed playing in the dirt, and pretending I understood the mystery of gardening. Indeed,
One of the healthiest ways to gamble is with a spade and a package of garden seeds. ~Dan Bennett
I learned the hard way even drought tolerant plants need care and attention – but not too much. During these past few years, I have seen the upshot of too much watering, and too little. Too much watering spawns a fungus that kills the grass, but too little dehydrates even the hardiest plants and ferns.
Except the Monkey grass. That can remain quite lush in the driest, hottest of times – but it is not a safe companion in a flowerbed! So, I can’t give up on weeding, just yet.
Our Texas garden taught me that taking simple steps each day yields beauty.
Build on other gardeners’ ideas. Take care of what they started if you can. If you can’t, figure out what you can maintain – simplicity is always a good rule.
Talk to people who know more than you do – apply what you learn.
Start small, so you can finish projects. (Do not despise the day of small beginnings! ~Zechariah 4:10)
Work the soil – turn it over; the worms may object, but if you find worms, that’s a good thing!
Sweat equity can be a sensible investment! (Better Than a Session on the Couch! )
Follow directions, weed and water – cautiously. (Choose Life!)
Watch out for fungi and weeds! (Genesis 4:7 )
Do you see any lessons gardening taught me that might inform your garden, dear reader – whatever the season of your life? Or can you share a lesson you have learned?
Remember: there’s always a small plot of something to cultivate – whether plants or people! ( John 9:4) Enlarging on a old proverb,
Our world, whatever its boundaries, or limitations, is our garden.
Our deeds and our words are the seeds.
Our harvest, which we may not live to see, can either be flowers or weeds.
The centre of trouble is not the turbulent appetites — though they are troublesome enough.
The centre of trouble is in the personality of man as a whole, which is self-centered and can only be wholesome and healthy if it is God-centered. ~ William Temple (1881-1944)
You might like Shades of what survived last winter! Anomalies in This Year’s Garden