Project Monday - Gardens and vigilance

Every year, I plant a garden with the good intentions of making it through a season - not with a bountiful harvest - but with a victory over the weeds.  And every year, I might do a little bit better, but never coming out the victor. 

This weekend we planted our peas.   We have many little plants growing in our greenhouse, but the peas were planted in the garden bed.  I filled the whole bed with peas.  The bed is in the midst of the whole garden, and last year peas were one of the things planted in the three beds.  It worked pretty well.  Problem is I tore apart the other two beds. 

So we watered the soil on Thursday night, while I was working the soil on Thursday, I noticed it was pretty dry.   We decided that we needed to wait until the soil was a bit more moist.  The next day we planted the peas even though the soil was still quite dry.

Jules and Tractorman were out there helping me.  We pounded stakes that Jones cut for me on the ends of each row.  And then I started weaving string to make little things for the peas to climb.  Not sure how well they will work, but I tried chicken fence last year and it was bulky.

The Lord brought good rain last night, so they are good and watered.  And while I was in town today, buying a heat lamp for our newest babies (chicks), I found blueberries and rhubarb.   My grandma used to make some amazing strawberry-rhubarb jam and I would love to do that. 

The rhubarb won't really be able to be harvested for another two years, but I will be glad I did this now.  I planted the blueberries on either end of the three rhubarbs and all of this in a row at the top of my strawberries.  Now to paint some rocks to go near them so the kids know they aren't weeds.

My thoughts this morning were about the vigilance needed to maintain a garden that is free of weeds.   You can't just sit in your house and wait for your plants to grow on their own.  You really need to be out there pulling the tiny things that poke up.  And if you pull them often and while they are still tiny, you will have less to contend with. 

If you wait till the weeds are tall, you will find yourself with sore arms and a back ache and working like crazy in the heat of the summer.  But if you work in the springtime and while they are tiny, you will save yourself a lot of trouble.

Sin is a lot like that.  If you allow yourself to do things you know are wrong and you justify them and continue to walk in sin.  It will be a lot harder to eradicate the sin once it has taken root in your life.  Work on it often and early and it will be so much easier.

Making the most of today
Steph