Green things are a-growin'

Amazing as it may seem, where I live, this is the time to start gardening. I have never found something quite so refreshing and relaxing as gardening. I feel like a parent to these little sprouts, carefully watering them, and pampering them, whispering to them "Grow big and strong". I haven't started reading to them, but since I want to practice my reading aloud, I might very well. And then I will have become beyond aid.

This year I am attempting two major things. One is growing in old tires, the other is starting plants in the house under a florescent light. I am doing the first because I had dug up almost all available garden space in our yard, and we had old tires that weren't being used. So instead of buying expensive wood for another raised bed, I piled the tires, two high, and now I have adorable little circular beds. The second task, involving florescent lights, seems to be going well. The lights give off a little heat, creating a little greenhouse for the tender seedlings, and also the closest equivalent to sunlight that I can give them in the basement.

Mostly I do vegetable gardening, with flowers on the side for fun. This year, I have devoted 28 square feet to planting only carrots. This is to remedy last year, where I only had 12 square feet, and everyone was begging for more. There is nothing quite the same as a home grown carrot. It's a piece of heaven. But you can go back to storebought ones when you have eaten all your own. One storebought vegetable you cannot go back to is tomatoes. Even now, six months since I ate my last garden tomato, the storebought ones always fall short in taste.

I always feel closer to God after I garden. Just the act of putting small seeds in the ground, giving them water, and waiting to see if the miracle of growth will happen; makes me all too aware of the wonder and power of our Lord and Creator.