Gardening

I did a bit of clean up in the gardening beds yesterday, trimmed a couple of shrubs, and dug up some dandelions. I’ve been wanting to do that for a while, but with my energy levels these days, just didn’t feel I could get to it until now. As it was, I was pretty worn out after about 10 minutes. Thankfully, I recovered better than I expected.

I’ve decided to grass over the vegetable garden this year. I did a lot of work about 8 years ago to get the soil in that section into good shape, but last year, just wasn’t well enough to plant veggies. I didn’t even plant any annuals in the back yard. The vegetable section sat fallow and grew weeds, as if to taunt me. So, I’ve decided to put it back the way it was when we arrived. The improvements will be on the other side of the sod, known only to us. The perennial gardens can take care of themselves, so I get the enjoyment without too much work.

I think it was five or six years ago, my step-mom gave me some grape hyacinth bulbs to plant. She said someone had given them to her and in two years, they had multiplied to the point of taking over her gardens. They live near Lake Huron and have very sandy soil. They have a hard time growing anything except grape hyacinths, it would seem. They have put in a lot of effort to condition the soil so their flower beds can be quite diverse.

I was disappointed for the first couple of years after planting them – they were spindly and looked on the verge of death. And they surely didn’t multiply as they had for my step-mom! So, I resigned myself to having to baby these things and never getting good results. Imagine my surprise after a year of neglect to find they are plentiful and beautiful! Maybe they like sandy conditions better than rich loam and it took them a while to acclimatise. At any rate, they were a welcome surprise.

The crocuses too this year surprised me after a year of ignoring. The hubby brings home small potted plants occasionally, just because he knows they make me happy. I can often transplant them to the back yard once they have finished blooming and they do grow – at least for a time. All the miniature roses over the years have died because our winter conditions are too harsh. It was probably about five years ago that he brought home the crocuses. I planted them and they did well for two years, then started to fade. The third spring, there were only a couple of leaves for each plant and a small flower or two among the lot of them. I expected there wouldn’t be any this year. The hubby mentioned the flowers in the back yard and when I looked, there were more crocuses than I have ever seen.

Maybe God knew I needed encouragement about my gardens this year – I don’t know. I love to garden and see the results of my labours. It is God who grows them – I am only a steward of those He has given me. Last year, I wasn’t a very good steward, and it would seem they do much better under God’s care than mine. And it made me happy and thankful to see their beautiful purple flowers.

Until next time, be kind to one another…