Gardening for the Future

"A garden is a great teacher.  

It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; 

it teaches industry and thrift; 

above all it teaches entire trust."  

~Gertrude Jekyll~

The very first garden that I ever tried to grow, did not survive my endeavors.  I managed to kill everything except the radishes and weeds.  I used to have a seemingly green thumb when I lived in Washington state.  I could grow nearly anything, inside or outside the house.  I loved plants, and loved growing things and nurturing the ground with my own hands.  

Then I moved to Arizona and the heat along with the clay soil was another problem entirely.  Some people manage to grow gardens even in the desert.  They manage to have tomatoes and peppers and carrots and onions and so many other amazing things.
I plowed my yard and planted, hoping to get fresh vegetables to supplement our food supply.  After a season of trying and failing, I ended up with plenty of weeds and radishes, too hot to eat.  I can't manage to garden at all since.  

My husband has more talents in this area than I do.  He built a greenhouse in our mountain home and grows the plants inside where the frost can't get to them.  This year, we have beets, spinach and corn as well as pumpkins, rhubarb and tomatoes.  He knows how to convince the plants to grow.  He has much more patience than I do and doesn't mind waiting for the needed time to harvest.  

For Father's Day, we enjoyed a beet greens and spinach salad with a hot bacon vinaigrette.  It was amazing.  

The girls are learning to garden.  To labor and wait and trust.  They are learning that what they sow, they will reap.  They are learning the goodness that comes from patience and time.  

They are learning the goodness of the garden and the possibilities of the future.  

“It was such a pleasure to sink one's hands 

into the warm earth, 

to feel at one's fingertips 

the possibilities of the new season.”   

~Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden~