Looking for A Miracle

Heaven is blessed with perfect rest but the blessing of earth is toil.  ~Henry van Dyke

My vegetable garden rested this year.  It was covered with a pile of brush, remnants of overgrown trees, and bushes cut away during the summer.  Because the soil was spent last year, I didn’t even try to plant anything in that area, but rather let it rest in hopes fertility might find its way back.

Two of the sweetest boys I know, my son Brandon and his friend Stewart helped me to haul away the old dead brush, dig up weeds and grass, and cover the area with compost and mulch.  The bending, stooping, shoveling, and hoeing really did a number on me!  It is truly hard, hard labor.  My favorite part of gardening is planting seed and baby plants and watching them grow!  I get so excited when the seedlings break ground and peek out at me.  But the bed preparation to get to that point is where the real work lies.  Soil preparation is the most important part of gardening, and the hardest part!  You almost have to have a degree in Horticulture to get it right, at least in the part of Texas I live in! 

Easy Vegetable Gardening (http://www.easy-vegetable-gardening.com/vegetable-garden-soil-preparation.html) describes the 6 vital components of excellent soil preparation:

• remove compaction and avoid walking on the soil
• dig/ cultivate only when it is dry/ moist (never if wet)
• regularly add organic material especially compost to build the number of garden worms that help your vegetable garden soil preparation
• dig/ cultivate only what/when you need to
• keep the good fine soil on the top and the sub-soil at the bottom
• always firm the soil with the back of a rake or fork

Where I live, we have rock and grass, so we have to haul in soil and amendments, dig, pull grass and weeds, dig some more, add manure, add compost, pray, go get a massage, and then hope for the best.  But harvest or no, I benefit from the hard work, the hours spent with my hands in the dirt.  Some of my best therapy and inspiration comes in the garden.  God reveals so many things about life to me during my time there.

As I dig out the invading grass and weeds and turn over the soil, I think about how beautiful it is, fertile or not.  Soil is also known as earth: it is the substance from which our planet takes its name.  The rich, organic smell reminds me of the blessings of working with the earth; it gives but never takes, its beauty is inspiration, it enlightens, it heals, it reveals, and it gives life.

So, I’ll let it rest another 5 months or so, and then I expect some results!  I am hoping for some home-grown goodies this summer.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed and a line open to Heaven for a cooler summer, fertile ground, and lots of rain.  Do you believe in miracles?

"Give thanks to him who alone does mighty miracles.  His faithful love endures forever." Psalm 136:4