Growth From My Garden

This year we planted our largest garden ever in the 35 years we've been married.  In the past we've grown a couple tomato plants, or a few zucchini plants.  One year we even tried growing lettuce – but it has always been in just a small patch in our yard.  Our current garden is pretty good sized compared to anything we've done in the past – it is our whole side yard, which is nearly the size of an average backyard!

It has been fun to see all of the plants grow from seedlings and you just can’t beat the flavor of vine ripened tomatoes!  I am sure our garden has saved us quite a bit as we haven’t had to purchase vegetables and herbs every week!  I have discovered and invented so many new recipes for zucchini – if you’re interested in any of our favorites, let me know and I’ll give you the recipes.

Fresh from our garden

In addition to the wonderful vegetables, I've also gained some first-hand experience and life lessons from my garden.  Some of the obvious lessons of course would be the amount of work, care, and time it takes to have a successful garden.  My husband has done all the physical work of rototilling the ground, planting the seeds, making the rows, and watering.  I have done all the work in preparing the vegetables for us to eat.  Pretty much the way it works in our home – my husband works to earn the money and I use it to purchase what we need to run the home.

What I've learned from our garden is that just doing what you need for the garden to grow is not enough!  See, we can put the seed in good soil, make sure it is placed in the optimum shade or sun, and water it – but that won’t insure that you’ll get the fruit…because of the vermin!  It seems that they attack from all angles!  There are the moles that eat the roots, the squirrels that eat the fruit and the insects that eat the leaves - any or all of these can kill the plant or prevent us from enjoying the fruit.

 The squirrels like the tomatoes and the cantaloupe leaves, the beetles (they disguise themselves to look almost like lady bugs) like the broccoli plants to death!  The cucumbers stress out if they don’t get enough water and turn so bitter that they are not edible!   It seemed that we (my husband really) was constantly fighting off some creep from demolishing our bounty!  I learned a valuable lesson as I pondered the plight of our patch!

As a Christian desiring to be fruit-bearing, I thought about how we as Christians always stress the importance of putting in the right ingredients, but through our garden, I have realized that it is vitally important also to make sure there is proper protection in place to keep the bad stuff out!  In other words, if a Christian goes to church, prays, reads their Bible, but does not also “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” as commanded in Ephesians 6:11, there is a good chance there will not be as much good usable fruit as there could have been.

It is not good enough to simply get fat with the good stuff, without arming ourselves against the harmful stuff!  We need both!  We must first fill ourselves with the Word of God, pray for guidance, help, and the fullness of the Holy Spirit…  Believe me, there are enemies on every side trying to rob you of producing the most and best fruit! Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day…"Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil." Proverbs 3:7

Have a wonderful day!