An August 2015 Update: Wrestling with God

It is August 20, 2015 right now, early in the morning before all the kids wake up.  It’s quiet and peaceful as I sit here on the stairs by the window, looking out on the reblooming lilac that has exactly one blossom left, typing this update.  It is my favorite kind of morning.  Last night, some very chilly air blew in, pushing out the hot and humid days we have been having.  And when I took my coffee, my homemade chocolate-chip breakfast scones, and my Bible outside to the backyard swing this morning, I had to wear a jacket.  I love that!  I love jacket weather.  I love it that the sky is dark and cloudy and it looks like a storm is on the way.  This kind of weather makes me feel alive!

            
We have actually been quite blessed this year with the weather.  The spring was really long, with many, many cool, rainy days, right up into June.  And there have been very few really hot days.  And now, fall has come early.  The weather has been so mild that my fall mums started blooming in mid-July.  All the plants are confused.

            
Anyway, I decided to write an update about this year’s gardening experience, about life.  Life can be interesting. 

Hunting for Tomatoes

            Okay, I’m going to admit it . . . just say it out loud honestly . . . “It’s not fair.”

            It’s not fair . . . it’s not fair . . . it’s not fair! 

            My whole summer has been ruined by a careless neighbor.  The neighbor’s garage is right behind our property, just five feet from our lovely garden.  And every year, we have noticed a smell, but we never could figure out where it was coming from.  Well, this year, my husband finally realized that it’s the neighbor’s garage.  The windows are broken and it’s piled up with rotting, “hoarder” garbage.  Old appliances and boxes and papers.  And it reeks of mold so bad that we haven’t been able to go out in the garden for the last six weeks.  And since they are directly west of us, the smell (and spores) blows all over us almost every day.  And so we haven’t let our kids outside except for a handful of times in the last six weeks.  (This was written in late-September, but posted for an earlier date.) 

Because He Deserves It!

            One of the most gorgeous days today.  In a long time.  It was in the 60’s and sunny with a nice, little breeze.  And so we took off school today to enjoy this wonderful blessing.  (We save our Spring Break days for the good days and work through the yucky ones.)  And so I had a chance to work in the garden: cleaning up weeds, planting onions, trimming dead rose branches.  (This last winter was brutal.  I had to cut all my roses down to the ground except my old-fashioned shrub roses: Therese Bugnet, Blanc Double de Coubert, and Rose de Rescht.  I’m praying that they all come back fine.)    

            But I’ve noticed something this spring.  After having a very depressed winter – struggling to adjust to this deep loneliness, accepting the fact that the book I wrote is going nowhere, and dealing with the fears that I’ll never do a “good enough” job in any area of my life – I had really hoped that I would find some joy in the garden. 

An August 2015 Update

            It is August 20, 2015 right now, early in the morning before all the kids wake up.  It’s quiet and peaceful as I sit here on the stairs by the window, looking out on the reblooming lilac that has exactly one blossom left, typing this update.  It is my favorite kind of morning.  Last night, some very chilly air blew in, pushing out the hot and humid days we have been having.  And when I took my coffee, my homemade chocolate-chip breakfast scones, and my Bible outside to the backyard swing this morning, I had to wear a jacket.  I love that!  I love jacket weather.  I love it that the sky is dark and cloudy and it looks like a storm is on the way.  This kind of weather makes me feel alive!

            We have actually been quite blessed this year with the weather.  The spring was really long, with many, many cool, rainy days, right up into June.  And there have been very few really hot days.  And now, fall has come early.  The weather has been so mild that my fall mums started blooming in mid-July.  All the plants are confused.

            Anyway, I decided to write an update about this year’s gardening experience, about life.  Life can be interesting. 

Reprint of "Hunting for Tomatoes"

            Okay, I’m going to admit it . . . just say it out loud honestly . . . “It’s not fair.”

            It’s not fair . . . it’s not fair . . . it’s not fair! 

            My whole summer has been ruined by a careless neighbor.  The neighbor’s garage is right behind our property, just five feet from our lovely garden.  And every year, we have noticed a smell, but we never could figure out where it was coming from.  Well, this year, my husband finally realized that it’s the neighbor’s garage.  The windows are broken and it’s piled up with rotting, “hoarder” garbage.  Old appliances and boxes and papers.  And it reeks of mold so bad that we haven’t been able to go out in the garden for the last six weeks.  And since they are directly west of us, the smell (and spores) blows all over us almost every day.  And so we haven’t let our kids outside except for a handful of times in the last six weeks.  (This was written in late-September 2014 and originally posted in July's posts, but I have reposted it in the gardening series since it relates to gardening, too.) 

The Battle Is Worth It!

            Well, this post brings me to the end of my “garden” series.  The last plants I’m going to talk about are my fruit plants.  Particularly about the raspberries and blackberries. 

Patient Garlic

            While asparagus (as I said in the last post) is one of the worst garden tasks, planting garlic is one of my favorite.  Maybe it’s because I love garlic so much, and it can be used in so many dishes.  Maybe it’s because organic garlic is nearly a dollar a bulb in the store, and I can easily grow a hundred of them in my own backyard.  Maybe it’s because it’s so easy to grow, almost foolproof.  Or maybe it’s because garlic gets planted in the fall, and so I can go into winter knowing that at least there is something in the garden, and in spring it’s one of the first things to pop up. 

He's got the Whole Asparagus Patch in His Hands

            There is almost no worse garden job than putting in a bed of asparagus.  The first spring we were here, I found myself at dusk – on a cold, wet day - standing in a muddy, 8” deep trench that I had dug out, trying to get over 60 asparagus roots to lay flat so that they would be facing up when I shoveled the dirt back on top.  And I had to watch my one-year old son at the same time, trying to keep him out of the piles of mud. 

Raw Peas and Purple Beans

            I love growing peas and beans.  Peas straight from the garden are such a treat.  Every spring, we plant a small patch of them just to eat fresh.  My sons and I will go out and gather a huge pile of them, and then sit on the yard swing and eat peas to our hearts’ content.  In the couple years that I’ve been growing them, they’ve never made it to the cooking pan.  But I don’t mind.  Because watching my children delight in raw peas right out of the garden is one of spring’s true delights.  We look forward to this highlight every year. 

The Greens: Kale and Chard

            This was a pleasant discovery for me – realizing that I love kale and chard.  I never tasted them before I decided to grow them.  But once I did, I realized that I had to have them every year.  A great big bed of them. 

Raising Tomatoes and Peppers

            Here are some practical tips on raising tomatoes and peppers.  As I said, I start them from seed in about mid- to late-March.  I prefer to start them a little on the “too late” side than on the “too early” side because they do not love growing indoors too long.  So if the packet says start 6-8 weeks before last frost, I start them 6 weeks before.  Peppers in mid-March, tomatoes in late March for my zone 5 climate. 

Squirrels

            Boy, would my husband be mad at me if he just saw what I did.  I could just hear him now, “What do you think you’re doing?  You’re going to make the problem worse!”  But I couldn’t help it, really.  It just seemed too cruel, considering that it’s a frozen wasteland out there right now.  Deep snow, everything iced over, howling winds kicking up little snow tornados. 

Waiting for the Fruit

            One of the hardest parts about vegetable gardening is waiting for the harvest . . . putting in all the hard work, and then waiting for months for the produce to ripen.  Especially when it comes to tomatoes. 

My Own Private Eden

            Okay, so I’ve already gone through the flowers and herbs.  Now it’s on to the vegetables, the crown jewel of home gardening.  I love growing flowers, but there is just something even more glorious about growing food.  I can totally see why God put Adam and Eve in a garden and gave them the job of tending it.  It was a wonderful job to give them.  He could’ve given them the job of cleaning up horse dung all day or building animal houses out of sticks.  But He gave them the job of gardening.  How gracious!  And I think whenever we plant a garden – vegetable, herb, flower, or fruit – we get to experience a little bit of Eden.  We experience God’s goodness to us.  We feel closer to Him.  And we find ourselves worshipping our generous, creative God!  What a great way to spend a few hours on a warm summer day!

Grandma's Azalea

            I’m sitting here this morning with my coffee, looking at the beautiful cut flower arrangement and the deep pink, potted azalea on my kitchen table.  The ones we brought home from my mother-in-law’s funeral last night.  Valentine's day.  Ugh!  It all happened way too soon.  She didn’t even make it to 70.  Cancer is a monster.

Finding God's Love in a Praying Mantis

            After the summer one year, I was getting the garden ready for the winter, cleaning out old plants and such.  And I ended up getting an unexpected lesson in God’s love for us.  I always had trouble really grasping God’s love for me.  It’s not that I really doubted His love, but I never really had a father that cherished me.  I didn’t know what it felt like to really belong to or feel loved by a dad.

Lesson from a Praying Mantis Egg Case

            Several years back, I bought some praying mantis egg cases to put in my garden.  But we wanted to watch them hatch (and raise one in a tank on our counter), and so we kept the egg cases in the kitchen suspended from a stick over a bowl.  For weeks they did nothing.  They just sat there, like dried-up walnuts.  I was beginning to wonder if we had a couple of duds.

The Herbs in my Garden

            Everyone should plant an herb or two, even if it’s just in a container.  Having fresh herbs is enticing.  It makes you want to cook more because you’ll want to put these plants to good use.  And having herbs makes you feel like a real gardener, like you have a green thumb even if you don’t.  Because most grow very well with only a little care.  And there’s just something about growing a plant that looks and smells good, and that you can cook with, too.  It’s inspiring. 

Worthless Tips about my Perennials, Wildflowers, and Roses

            This post will be about some tips that I learned about the plants I have.  So if you don’t care about that stuff, feel free to skip it.  There are no inspirational or spiritual lessons, just information.  And it’s not professional info, just friendly.  And probably pointless, but I feel like sharing it anyway.  So here are some things I’ve learned.  And, FYI, I live in zone 5.  Hot summers and nasty cold winters.  (I’ll look at my herbs next post.) 

Butterfly Gardens and Wild Strawberries

            Just north of the perennial bed, right behind the garage, is our new butterfly garden.  We put this in last summer as a project for my oldest son.  My other three sons love strawberries, so they got a little alpine strawberry bed right behind the house.  But my oldest hates berries of all kinds (unthinkable and tragic!), so he got a butterfly garden.