How the Garden Grows

We've begun to fill in the garden beds. So far we have onions and some beautiful Crawford lettuce.

I just picked my first little handful of sugar snap peas.

We'll be having those with the lettuce and some beets from the little garden for our supper tonight.

Here I am having just picked the beets and a couple of sweet peas. The sweet peas smell so lovely.

I planted a whole row of zinnias that I started from seeds.

The cabbages are coming along. They were a gift from my neighbor, Sharon. Thank you.

I also have a whole row of lavender that we started from seeds—50 little plants.

The two rows of potatoes—Red Pontiac, Adirondack Blue, Yukon Gold, and White Kennebec—are coming along nicely. A few already have some buds on them.

Although the tomatoes had a difficult start, they are coming along also. Some are blooming, and some even have little tomatoes.

The blackberries have been blooming and making little berries.

This week we also planted daikon radishes, French breakfast radishes, Easter egg radishes, okra, sweet corn, green beans, lima beans, summer squash, spaghetti squash, scalloped squash, and black zucchini. I still have a few more seeds to get in the ground. Robert tilled the beds and got them all ready for the new seeds. We've worked hard on clearing out the weeds, mostly Bermuda grass. Now the challenge is to keep them clean.

A Prayer For the Planting of a Seed

I lay you down and cover you with the warm dark soil,
Hiding you from the sun that will ultimately give you life.
I pat the soil pressing it close against your fragile shell,
Praying for rain and warmth and a miracle,
Not only for you, but for every seed I plant today.
I cannot make you grow.
But the miracle begins with my agency,
My small beginning.

Give me the faith of a mustard seed —
Confident of the potential life it holds inside
Content to lie in darkness until the time is right
Certain of the loving plan of the Creator