Each year about this time I begin to plan my garden. No, it’s not a big garden, just a few rows but I love tending it and watching it grow.
I try to make it better than the previous year’s. Last year I decided to plant both vegetables and flowers in the same garden area. I loved the color of the flowers while I was waiting for the veggies to grow large enough for harvest.
This year I will revamp that a bit and place the flowers in the back row and keep the vegetable up front so they are easier to tend. Since it’s such a small patch there’s no need for a rototiller just a hoe and some good ol’ fashioned hand labor.
We had such a warm winter I was all but ready to get my vegetable starts in the ground and then the last week turned off cold with frost nearly every morning so I must wait a bit longer. Don’t want the tender plants to get frost bite.
Isn’t that the way life is for us. We want new experiences, new growth but we don’t want anything to harm the good that we desire to cultivate. Some of the new growth needs to be pulled out because it will be detrimental to the good that we desire to see. Weeds of jealousy, anger, greed, gossip, bitterness and lying might spring up and have a beautiful flower but they are deadly and must be removed.
“Put out of your life all these things: bad feelings about other people, anger, temper, loud talk, bad talk which hurts other people, and bad feelings which hurt other people. 32 You must be kind to each other. Think of the other person. Forgive other people just as God forgave you because of Christ’s death on the cross.” Ephesians 4:31-32 NLV
Jesus taught his disciples that His Word should be treated like seed. Good seed. But if the ground, our hearts, aren’t prepared properly we won’t get the harvest that we desire.
“ The seeds that fell among the thornbushes are also people who hear the message. But they start worrying about the needs of this life and are fooled by the desire to get rich. So the message gets choked out, and they never produce anything. 23 The seeds that fell on good ground are the people who hear and understand the message. They produce as much as a hundred or sixty or thirty times what was planted.” Matthew 13:31-33 CEV
So the first thing we do in Gardening 101 is prepare the soil. Break up the dirt clods, remove the rocks, pull out the weeds, fertilize it and then give it a good soaking of water.
“If you plant goodness, you will harvest faithful love. Plow your ground, and you will harvest with the Lord. He will come, and he will make goodness fall on you like rain.” Hosea 10:12 ERV
Preparing the soil is dirty work but it is well worth the effort. Get ready for a bountiful harvest!