All In A Days Work

We’re getting our garden in late this year – the weather hasn’t cooperated. The garden actually should have gone in a couple of weeks ago but it was still snowing a couple of weeks ago.

I enjoy working in the garden. I love to plant things and watch them grow. I love to see those tiny little plants and seeds that we painstakingly planted and nurtured at the beginning of spring turn into a veritable jungle, and then go with childlike wonder and gather the produce that seems to have magically appeared. I love ooohing and aaahhhing with our children over the treasures we’ve collected, and we especially love biting into the wonderful delicacies that our garden gives us each year.

( There's another small row to the left that's not covered in plastic yet, but we'll get there.)

In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables, I’ve discovered that working in the garden offers other gifts as well. Do you ever hear a song or a sound or smell something that takes you back in time? Yesterday as I was working the garden (for the fourth day in a row) I was down on my knees in the dirt surrounded by the privacy of our back fence when I became aware of a symphony of crickets going on around me.

For a brief moment the present melted away and I was back on the small farm I grew up on. I could see the tree-lined fields and smell the freshly tilled dirt. The fresh spring air was sweetened with the scent of honeysuckle and a symphony of crickets filled the evening with their spring concerto. The woods we played in, built clubhouses in and explored as children were just beyond the fields. The sun was setting just beyond the peach orchard and just for a moment the feelings and memories of childhood flooded my consciousness in a welcome breath of fresh air.

Many are the gifts that working in the garden brings.