We usually start in the Spring and turn our soil to make the perfect bed for our little plants to begin their season of growing.
The planter behind our house usually houses the herbs-cilantro, basil, oregano and hot peppers- jalapenos, Tabasco, habanero, caribbean red.
The side yard is the larger patch for tomatoes, bell peppers, and (of course) the pumpkin patch.
(these first 2 pics are from Madison's first garden- May 2007)
This year, we got busy.
Very busy.
And decided to forgo the garden.
and yes, the giant pumpkin.
Or so we thought....
A couple weeks ago I went to the market to buy tomatoes.
It was then that I remembered one of the reasons we grow a vegetable garden each year.
Fresh tomatoes are not cheap.
Luckily it wasn't too late to purchase a couple tall tomato plants.
Since I was picking up tomatoes, I grabbed a couple hot peppers, too.
After all, football season is coming, and Daddy's famous hot wings are not going to heat themselves.
Each year when the garden is pretty well finished producing, ie winter arrives, we let the weeds take over.
Usually we spend some time killing off all the yucky weeds a few weeks before planting day to start fresh the following year.
Since we were not planning on planting this year, the back planter was pretty over grown.
I planted our peppers and herbs in pots to avoid the mess.
Until I realized- these tomatoes need the ground.
Right after I bought this years veggies, I spent some time pulling weeds.
The back garden didn't look too shabby.
Unfortunately that didn't last long.
It really is amazing how fast weeds grow.
Today was the day to work on them again.
The girls played in the sandbox together under the shade umbrellas
while Mommy go to pulling.
A couple weeks ago when I first started clearing out the planter, I found two small plants growing from last year's seeds.
We decided to keep the mystery pepper and small cherry tomato plants (they are actually sweet 100s- yummy) and see whether or not they take off.
It's amazing how deeply rooted (and numerous) weeds get in such a short amount of time.
As I got closer to their end of the planter box I nearly pulled the pepper plant right out of the ground.
See, the plant has thin stalks and small bunchy roots.
It doesn't stand very firm in the ground since it's so young.
The weeds have such long thick roots, it took a bit of work to get them out of the over-run box.
It was at that point I felt the Lord speaking to me about more than just our little garden.
I realized how easy it is to accidentally pluck the really good stuff out of my life.
So often it's shallow rooted and pulls right out.
The bad stuff, the weeds, are the tough part.
Lately, God has been showing me more of the deep rooted weeds in my life.
He is helping me to muster up the strength it takes to pull them out of my life for good.
Greed, pride, and selfishness set some pretty deep roots in me.
They've gotten in the way of pretty amazing blessings and relationships in the past.
It's time for that to change.
Sometimes it's tough to save and nurture the healthy plants from so much over-growth.
I still have lots of work to do- in the garden and in my life
but I'm doing my best to nurture the good plants
and pull more of the weeds.
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When I had these realizations in my garden, a blog post started coming to life in my head.
It ended up much different in the blog than it started in my head.
The words always seem to come out wrong.
I'm still not sure how I feel sharing these thoughts on the blog.
Either way, thanks for reading along as I continue to document our journey.
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And yes- it's true- no giant pumpkin this year. Kinda sad, huh?
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