Fruit Inspectors

It's time for another post on the garden. After all, it has been a while, and the summer season is quickly moving into fall. Just  yesterday I opened up the front door and was greeted by extremely cool temperatures and the promise of rain in the air. A day later, a temperature of 58° and the rain we got last night have really impressed upon me that the end of summer is here, and it will soon be time for sweaters and a warm bowl of soup!

But back to the garden. As a novice gardener, I have learned so much this year. And there is so much I would like to improve upon next year (or whenever I am able to garden again). So here are some pointers of what I have seen and learned from my first year's experience.

Gardening is healing. I don't know about you, but life is stressful and situations beyond my control zap my energy and my joy. Spending time in the Word and in prayer and praise/worship challenge me to keep pressing on, but there is an elemental level of my being that gardening touches. Seeing a new fruit begin to develop fills me with a childlike wonder that never seems to grow old. Watching a strawberry ripen or a spaghetti squash turn color thrills me to my toes, and I am reminded that God is in control, and I can walk back into the house with a heart full of peace. Or I can sit out and just stare at every little sprout or bud that comes up. I am so thankful for the healing that the garden brought to me during this busy and difficult year.

Another simple principle that I've seen is that you have to plant in order to reap.  It is basic and perhaps silly to even mention, but I have never been able to reap a harvest in a vegetable garden, because I simply have never planted one before. So it is in life. I cannot reap what I have not sown, and therefore, I recognize that I need to put in a good deal of work beforehand in preparation for being able to sow in every area of my life - in friendships, in my marriage, in my health, in my walk with Jesus... and then I can expect a harvest. But more on that later.

Something that I did notice pertaining to my particular garden is that I need more sunlight. The vegetables that wilted in the sun were the lettuce and spinach. Neither did well with direct sunlight. But everything else really has depended on it. In fact, I have noticed that the fruit that my peppers, tomatoes and even my strawberries is significantly smaller than gardens in full sun. The only conclusion I can come to is that the plants in my garden just do not have the sunlight they need for full maturity. Another problem I've noticed is that I need deeper soil. Since my beds are raised above cement, the soil is shallow, and the sun quickly dries out the soil. Every morning or early evening I need to give the garden a good dousing.. or the plants will quickly wilt.

A few other things I have learned: A necessary but difficult gardening task is to prune. I read about it when I was doing research at the beginning of this grand adventure, but I never realized the effects of NOT doing it. Now, at the end of my first season, I have realized that pruning is necessary. When I first dropped those little seeds in the soil, I didn't know how many seeds would sprout. I saw that for some plants, only one or two of the several actually sprouted. For other plants, every single seed I planted took root and shot through to the surface. For those plants, I quickly realized that I did not have enough space to allow for their full growth. For the plants - like the carrots - that I did not prune, I found them  at harvest time bunched together, some of them severely stunted in their growth because they did not have full room to mature. Lesson learned. No matter how much it pains me to pull a few of those sweet, hopeful looking sprouts, I must do it so I can reap a fuller harvest.

I have also become a very avid fruit inspector. I have put in the hard work, and now I want to know if my plants - which I have given every good thing I can - produce the fruit they were made to produce. Most of my plants were very satisfying. The only plants that have not produced fruit have been the broccoli and the eggplant. I have beautiful plants... but no fruit. It brings a whole new meaning to Paul's letter to the Ephesians in Ephesians 2:10.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I have been created with a purpose. To do good works. And the same principle exists in the natural world. My broccoli and eggplant plants were created with a purpose: to produce broccoli and eggplants. And I am upset that they have not produced the fruit they should have. It is very disheartening. I now understand why God inspects our lives (and why we should inspect our own lives) to see if we are producing eternal fruit.

 
 Summer 2011 Garden
Planted                Sprouted          Fruit
zucchini                   yes                    yes
spinach                   yes                    yes (bolted early)
broccoli                  yes                     no
garlic                       yes                    yes (bulbs very small)
carrots                    yes                    yes (needed pruning)
lettuce                    yes                     yes
spaghetti squash     yes                    yes
jalapenos                yes                    yes
bell peppers            yes                   yes (fruit small)
eggplant                  yes                   no
tomatoes                 bought              yes (not much fruit)
strawberries            bought              yes


And now, here I am - mid September - and I am a bit sad that the season is coming to an end here in Colorado. I have loved every moment of it!