Garden Update

I'm not going to lie to you: it's not going well. You are looking at a picture of our total yield so far. About 8 green beans.

We started with a variety of seeds, seedlings and full plants - none are doing well (except one - keep reading!). So far: the strawberries, sugar snap-peas and a few other things I can no longer recall never even broke through the surface.

The green beans are up but some animal keeps eating them. Otherwise I think they might be ok. The tomato plants have grown about 3 inches since I put them in the ground. Not one tomato yet.

But we have plenty of cilantro! However, turns out: although I love to eat cilantro...I don't have one recipe with cilantro in it. It sure smells good.

And lastly...the surprise! We actually have 4 stalks of corn growing. I think we may just get some corn! Bill mocked me mercilessly (and countless others told me that I was crazy for even thinking that corn would come up). And: that's the only darn thing I can get to grow.

Here are some things I'm discovering:

• Soil really matters. Our soil isn't great for growing things (becoming evident at this point!)...and we could do things to improve it.
• Fertilizer (or compost) really would help, if I could just get motivated to get some.
• I'm interested in having vegetables but I'm not that interested in gardening. (I knew this already but I really thought it might change)

However: I'm determined this won't be my last year. It's only my first. Next year I need to put much more energy into preparing the soil and then fertilizing what's there. I just wanted to stick it in the dirt below my mulch and water it and then go out and collect my veges. Guess that's not going to work so well.

If this garden mirrors anything about God then I'm starting to understand that the preparation and the actual condition of the soil could be the most important thing we do. I guess you could call that the foundation of the garden. And God is really into foundations...so this shouldn't be a surprise. Foundations foundations foundations. This is where it's at. The no-glory, little seen disciplines that lead to the biggest yield. God loves foundations, so I should have seen that a garden wasn't going anywhere without a good one either. The truth is the truth no matter where we apply it.

In Isaiah 61:11 it says that the Lord = the soil. That seems pretty important. "For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations."