Lessons from My Garden (2008)

This spring we planted a garden. After buying some left over 'turkey dirt' from our neighbor (that's a whole other post!), tilling it in to our clay/rock soil, picking out bed springs, twine and other assorted 'stuff' (like I said, that's a whole other post!), we were ready to plant!

I discussed the idea of grow boxes and 'square foot gardening' with my attorney, Mr. W. I really wanted to give this 'new-fangled' gardening a try. Mr. W was raised on a fruit farm (like me) and still thinks in terms of furrows and rows. We ended up planting rows (I haven't given up on my Garden Squared - next year).

We carefully hoed our rows, planted our seeds, tucked in our tomato plants, put cages around the tender plants and gave the garden a big drink. We were off to a great start.

At the beginning of the summer, I tried to weed the garden at least once a week and tried to water it before it dried out (I'm working on Mr. W to adopt the soaker hose approach - in the meantime, we are watering by hand). We saw seeds sprout, vegetables start to form and all in all things were looking promising for some fresh produce throughout the summer.


Well, life got busy (busier) and the watering became a little more erratic. We meant well but we just didn't do it consistently. As the tomatoes started to ripen, I noticed that about half of them had a weird brown 'bottom' to them. Suspecting bugs, I consulted my garden expert, Bonnie. I was shocked when she told me that it wasn't a bug that had caused my garden failure, it was my inconsistent watering. My tomatoes had a case of Blossom Rot! No amount of 'catch-up' watering could repair my earlier neglect. All I could do was recommit to consistent watering, throw away the bad tomatoes and wait to harvest healthy ones.

Having grown up on a fruit farm, the lessons and parables in the scriptures that related to planting, sowing, thinning, harvesting and pruning all made perfect sense to me. Every year I witnessed the 'Law of the Harvest' as the literal fruits of the orchard were gathered in.

But this year my little garden reminded me once more -
You can't fake obedience!

No amount of regret or 'double-duty' watering could alter the condition of the tomatoes already formed. I had today and the next day and the remainder of the summer to do better but the fruits of my inconsistency hung rotten on the vines.

The power that comes from daily obedience is real.
It gives us faith not fear, hope not helplessness.
That is what my little garden taught me this year.