Okra bloomBefore our days get busy with 'Tis the Season' ahead, I thought I'd share the recent changes in our garden which have encouraged us to watch and wait.
In early April, my 'Mother Dear' gave me her compost tumbler. She'd used it for many years, then finally decided to give it up : ). Needless to say, I was thrilled she gave it to me, for I thought reserving our kitchen scraps to enhance the garden soil would be an easy, fun, and educational project for our family!
So, from April to late September, I anticipated our first pot of black gold, and I could hardly wait to finally blend it into our fall garden soil.
Notice, the 'I' in that sentence, for the children have not yet grown as excited about composting, but they've cooperated well.
We store a bucket under the kitchen sink where we accumulate scraps. Sometimes the collection can develop quite a potent aroma, and, needless to say, appearance. My family is usually well aware when I open the container to add new matter like egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags, and vegetable matter. One doesn't have to think hard to picture the combination of all these created art forms when they are added to an enclosed container at room temperature for several days at a time.
John Dear is my tough one. He's proven himself very faithful to carry the bucket with a smirk of a smile that encourages my heart! He proudly dumps all the decomposing, aromatic matter into the tumbler without heaving, unlike Katherine. Mark says, 'Yep, she's her father's daughter'.
The tumbler holds approximately 90 gallons of scraps, dirt, and brown matter, and we ended up with just enough "black gold" to blend into our two largest (4'x8') beds.
Kat and I then planted seeds. At the time, only our okra and a few pepper plants were still thriving from our summer garden, so we left them in place, and waited for the rest to grow...collard greens, cabbage, carrots, green onions, and spinach.
Several days of rain followed. After all the tedious work of planting many tiny seeds, we feared our seeds were washed out!
However, in time something indeed began to grow, and Katherine came to me and said, 'Mom, I think we're growing weeds'.
Yes, it appeared we were, but since they appeared familiar, we decided to leave them in place, because otherwise, pulling them up would uproot what may have been growing.
We were purposed to hope for the best!
We continued to wait and watch while cabbage grew in the midst of our 'weeds'.
Collards grew in their midst also. If you look close, you'll find something else growing!
Finally, we figured it out! In addition to what we planted, we were growing tomato and pumpkin plants!
How did that happen?
A friend shared the conditions in my compost tumbler may not have been hot enough to kill the discarded tomatoes seeds that were added to the tumbler...ugh!
How could that be after a hot summer?
Maybe we added the tomato seeds too late before harvesting our compost.
Maybe we didn't add enough dampness to encourage heat to build up in the composter, or... maybe we didn't turn it enough to encourage the decomposition process!
OH, if all depended on us, nothing would grow, for it seems we have never enough experience and knowledge to get it right. However, we have learned this: God is the Master Gardener, and He is in control of everything...the weather, the soil, and the seed. He is the Creator of it all, and He's oh so merciful to nurture the seed in the midst of the worst and best conditions, if He wills.
One day, I became frustrated with how unsightly our beds appeared, so I went out and began pulling up all the tomato plants because again, it appeared the blooms on the tomatoes had dropped and would not produce fruit.
As before, I discarded the plants to a pile on the ground next to the beds, but as I moved around, to my utter amazement, I spotted a couple of tiny little tomatoes on the plants I'd just thrown to the pile.
I screamed, and the children came running!
"We have tomatoes~! WOW! We are finally growing tomatoes! Come see!"
I quickly grabbed them up and replanted them in an ordered row. Water followed, and would you believe they have since added a few more tomatoes?
Our new pumpkin plants have continued to grow also.
Whether each of these newcomers will survive the cold soil temps in which they are purposed to grow is yet another thought to consider! Surely, this is another lesson to anticipate, for we've yet to figure out how to reconcile growing conditions for both warm and cold weather plants growing side by side. Collard greens need cooler temps while pumpkins need warm temps (protection from cold weather). Any suggestions?
It doesn't seem right at the moment to dig up the pumpkin, disrupting the collards that are not yet ready to harvest. It's likely we should transplant them. Meanwhile we need to think up a special flexible covering for the tomatoes and pumpkins. Would the covering provide enough warmth to the soil for their survival?
We have a few days to think and prepare because we're expecting much colder temps by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, our carrots are thriving. They are definitely cold hardy plants!
Our pepper plants seem very content in the place where they are growing for now.
It's great to see they are happily content to 'bloom where they are planted', ...
and our cabbage has grown, not as we expected, but so beautifully.
Needless to say, there is still much to learn in our garden. While we work and anticipate the best of circumstances, we are learning to put to practice the little bit we know while we anticipate the results are ultimately the work of God.
"I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry."—1 Corinthians 3:6-9.
In the harvest field now ripened
There’s a work for all to do;
Hark! the voice of God is calling
To the harvest calling you. Refrain Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There’s a crown—and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus’ Name. In the mad rush of the broad way,
In the hurry and the strife,
Tell of Jesus’ love and mercy,
Give to them the Word of Life. Refrain Does the place you’re called to labor
Seem too small and little known?
It is great if God is in it,
And He’ll not forget His own. Refrain Are you laid aside from service,
Body worn from toil and care?
You can still be in the battle,
In the sacred place of prayer. Refrain When the conflict here is ended
And our race on earth is run,
He will say, if we are faithful,
“Welcome home, My child—well done!” Refrain Words and Music by Mrs. F.W. Suffield, 1924
|
|
