Gardening 2010

I love working in the garden. It is so much fun to plant things as a family...to watch them grow...to see the garden looking neat and tidy, (after weeding and tilling) and finally to harvest. We have canned applesauce, pizza sauce, peaches, jams, squash and more. We have also frozen corn, beans, carrots and blueberries. You should see the production when we are in action! Everyone enjoys working together. Caleb's favorite job is tilling, Matthew prefers mowing the lawn, but when it comes to gardening his favorite job is pulling out corn stalks. Rachel enjoys freezing and canning and Elizabeth enjoys spading the garden and picking beans.  Marie, JoAnna and Esther love planting the seeds...especially onions, beans and corn...as the size is good for their little hands.  Reuben prefers eating what comes out of the garden. (He's gone today and so I can say anything I like for him) Actually, Reuben helps with whatever needs doing in the garden... : )...don't know if he has a favorite.

There is so much to learn from gardening...the principal of reaping and sowing, for example.
 The seeds that we plant determine what we grow.  In our lives it is the same.  We reap what we sow...so the question is...what are we sowing today??  Without a doubt we will reap.  And we always reap MORE than we sow.  Do we want to reap MORE of what we are planting today?  There is also the need to take care of little things...while they are still little.  If a weed is allowed to continue to grow, it begins to choke out the good plants while they are young...around the older plants the weeds may not choke it out...but watch out! There is nothing like a weed to be ready to reproduce....hundreds and thousands of seeds...which will patiently wait through the winter and then bear fruit...perhaps after we have long forgotten that we did not deal with them.  A few years ago, I was my Grandma Doris' gardener.  Her garden was a little low, and it was a wet year.  We replanted three times, and finally gave up.  The weeds grew up in that garden, and in the fall, my Uncle Vernon mowed them down, and later the garden was tilled.  Spring came, and once again I was planting at Grandma's.  We make a habit of keeping our garden fairly well weeded...because of that, most years, after weeding once or twice, we are well ahead of the weeds, and a little attention here and there keeps us ahead of the weeds...not so the garden at grandma's that year.   A little while after planting the garden we came back to weed.  I had NEVER seen such an excellent weed crop!  It was like a shag carpet!  The children looked at it and we were all a little discouraged before we ever began.  I reminded them how we usually are ahead of the weeds in a weeding or two...and certainly the next time should be less...and we plunged in!  How we weeded...then we waited for things to grow.  About a week to 10 days later we were back...what did we see??  The shag carpet of weeds once again!  Aaaaah!   Once again we plunged in...I admit...I FELT like quitting on that garden.  It would never do for the garden in grandma's yard to be untidy, however; so we kept on.  We did finally get a reasonable harvest that year.   After that labor intensive year...I took some time to think about sin in our lives.  Never imagine that we can let it grow up with out paying for it in the long run!
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap...and let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." (Galations 6:7 & 9)