I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear
The son of God discloses
- In the Garden by Alan Jackson
I took a walk through the garden this morning. My favorite time of day to visit, is early morning or late afternoon. I find that is when everything looks most magical.
I sometimes wish I had a Secret Garden tucked in the corner of my property....a place I could walk through and hide at times, just to sit, talk to God, or sit in silence.
Maybe one day.
It is something I have talked about with Curt, carving out a little section in our back yard, putting in a walkway, a closed garden, some decorations and so forth.
It will probably still happen, in the area where we have our fruit trees, but that is something for the future, as our finances allow.
For now, I am pleased with what we already have.
Walking through the garden this morning, I was reminded of just how wonderful God is, in everything that He does and creates. Our summer was brutal, and we're not completely out of the hot temperatures, though they're nowhere near what they were.
With that heat though, our veggies struggled to produce, they did all they could to stay alive. We lost a lot of the plants, but we did manage to keep some, by constantly keeping an eye on them, and watering early morning and late evening, sometimes having to throw a little water on them midday too when we could see that they were desperately needing it.
I cried many nights, thinking that our garden had no chance. Oh me of little faith, I should have known that God never forsakes us nor leaves us, and even in these moments where everything is seeming to work against us, He comes in and shows us otherwise.
Our garden survived. Oh we did lose a lot, but also were blessed with some tough plants that held in and are now thriving, growing, producing and giving us the harvest we should have had a month ago, at the very least.
In the patch above we have pumpkins, watermelon and cantaloupe. The cantaloupe didn't quite make it, I think there may be just one plant still hanging in. We do have one or two watermelon plants still growing, and then we have a ton of pumpkins.
It makes me so happy every time I walk by and see all the gorgeous huge yellow blooms. Intermingled in the blooms there are tiny, perfect little pumpkins.
Walking across the yard, to the enclosed veggie garden, you will find my peppers, basil, tomatoes and cucumbers. I need to get my Fall and Winter garden planted, but am going to wait a few more weeks before that, so that these guys have time to finish what they're doing.
My cucumber plants are also hard at work, putting out the sweetest looking little fuzzy cucumbers.
This is my first year growing these, last year we grew zucchini, this year we are doing cucumbers instead. But I think next year I'll do both.
I often stop and just stare at my garden. How amazing it is, to see something growing from a tiny seed that you threw into the soil, a month or two earlier. It boggles my mind, just how perfect this whole process is, from the seed to the soil, the watering, the first shoots, the growing plant, the little blossoms that give way to the fruit or vegetable that you will then consume.
Every little detail thought of by our Creator.
I lost one of my green pepper plants, it just didn't survive the constant beating of heat it received. And that is how the garden goes. Sometimes even when you do everything you can, some of the plants just don't make it. You never know which will and which won't.
But gardening itself has become such a pleasure for me. It's a learning experience. Every year that we plant something, we no doubt end up learning something too. And through those experiences we better ourselves, we make plans, we figure things out and we apply the new tools to the next planting season.
We've only been growing our own veggies for about 3 years, and we are now also working on growing fruit plants, which take longer and have their own issues. We thought we had lost our pear tree during the heat and drought season, but we kept watering and babying it, and it's come back alive, with beautiful new green shoots. It's actually looking more beautiful than it was before.
And finally my tomatoes. The 3 plants are only now throwing out dozens of flowers and tiny little tomatoes. I am hoping we get a good harvest before the frost sets in, but if this weather is anything to go by, I think we have a good chance of receiving some good tomatoes out of this crop.
What joy both Curt and I feel, each time we walk through our garden. It is a true blessing.
Before I end this post, I just wanted to show you real quick, a yummy recipe that I'll be sharing on Thursday, on my Cooking Thursday post. It was so good, can't wait to make it again. Think it will go on the menu for Thanksgiving this year.
