OK... so by now I'm guessing people are getting tired of hearing about our garden... but Oh My Goodness I can't help myself! I can't believe it's actually growing and feeding us! The kids and I have our daily ritual... everyday around 4, after an afternoon of working and playing in the yard, we bring out a basket and fill it up with goodies from the garden for dinner, then we water the garden and head inside to wash up and prepare a meal with fresh produce from our own garden! We've had spinach and lettuce and herbs for quite some time along with a pepper or two... and now we have also been enjoying tomatoes, beets and cucumbers! There will be lots more as the season progresses, and we are trying hard to be patient as we watch the fruits of our labor mature and ripen.
Now that our vegetable garden is in full swing, we decided it was time to add more flowers to the yard. Annabelle has been asking for "cutting" flowers... she is like her Mother in that regard... she loves fresh flowers! We've been planning for a couple of weeks, and today we started a Butterfly Garden! So far we have bee balm, coneflowers, coreopsis, tall phlox and pincushion flowers. We're planning on adding to it in the coming weeks.
We are all learning so much from our gardening adventures! At the forefront of my mind lately is the "letting go" and realizing that in the garden, I cannot be in control. Things will grow only as fast as Mother Nature will have them grow, and a tomato will ripen in it's own time. The bunnies and bugs and birds and other critters do not care whether or not I want them in my garden, and so I am learning to make peace with them. I can discourage them, but I cannot control them. It's quite freeing, this realization! I'm trying really hard to apply these lessons to the rest of my life, too!
But the most important lesson of all... one that applies to both gardens and children, too... and what has been the mantra of my gardening experience... "If you love it, it will grow".
If you love it, it will grow.
