So it's no big secret that I love to grow vegetables. I spent the first 8 years of my life living in rural Avoyelles parish. My grandparents owned 92 acres and it was the ultimate play ground for a young boy. The school bus would drop me off at their house on Friday afternoon and I would have the run of the place until my parents came to Sunday dinner to pick me up. In addition to pigs, chickens, and huge fields that were for commercial farming, my grandparents had a personal garden of about an acre. Some of my fondest memories included following my grandfather's tractor to pick up potatoes and sitting on the back porch with my grandmother to shell peas, shuck corn, and snap beans. Oh to be eight again, and learn from the members of the greatest generation all over again.
Gardening is really a collection of many different disciplines. The first thing you have to do is break the ground. Breaking the ground serves a number of purposes. The soil needs to be loose enough for your seed to germinate and grow roots that will feed on nutrients in the ground. Just like in your life, plants need good ground that supports them with both stability and nourishment. Then comes planting. This discipline requires attention to the seasons and weather. Plant a cauliflower in summer or okra in winter and failure will surely follow. As the Bible says, "for everything, there is a season". The next step is fertilization. In order to grow, plants and people need the right vitamins, minerals, water, and treatment. That is followed closely by weeding. Whenever resources are given out generously the weeds and free loaders are quick to jump in and feast. Weeding is an exhausting discipline that requires constant vigilance. By this time your plant needs pruning. In order to produce the most fruit excesses must be removed from the plant. How much more productive would you be if you removed unnecessary things from your life? Then comes the harvest. The weeks and months of hard work have finally paid off. You now have sustenance, and that's what it's all about. In the end you have what you need to continue living. But then you have to plow it all under, because the next season is coming without fail.
As you can probably tell, gardening is a total experience for me that includes body, mind, and spirit. No doubt that working a garden is good exercise. Personally, with my physical problems, all the bending over is a little much. But it all balances out and being outdoors does a body good. While gardening does not take massive brain power, it does take thought, planning, and focus. Actually, I find it helps un-clutter my mind from this extremely complicated life we've created. And spiritually, it's one of the things in life that put me most at peace. To feel the life that God put into the soil. To realize the brilliance of having bees pollinate flowers. And to appreciate the concept of rain water falling from the sky after traveling from half a world away. Well if that doesn't do your soul good, I'm not sure what will.
So after reading all this, you probably think I'm a little off. But I like to garden, and that makes it all O.K.
