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Thank you for inspiring me to take time and smell the soil. It beckons.
Start an adult 4H club or FFA club at the college or take a Master Gardener course from the state or local extension service. Look into local gardening clubs that have experienced vegetable and fruit gardeners. Start small or with a couple of partners and keep a journal and a plot map/chart, which then becomes a great historical document for you and your family. And also helps with annual planning and post growing season analysis. Plan on a minimum of 3-5 years to learn your land/plot.
Keep it small at first or you will get overwhelmed.
Do not work in the midday sun if you can avoid it. You must stay motivated.
Use silence and observation to be a good gardener. It is a humbling experience.
Keep a pair of “garden shoes” by the door.
(Bury a small flask and a coffee can full of silver dollars somewhere in the garden, but away from where power implements can wreck them. Adds to the personality of the garden. Tell your family where they’re buried on your death bed.)
Recently I have been longing to go into my garden and get my hands into the earth for some real connection to something I couldn’t quite explain but after reading this article I know what I was yearning for.
My conversion, or rather, discovery, of the one true faith came, like a light from heaven, when I read that wonderful sentence about St Mary Magdalene seeing the risen Jesus. “she thought he was the gardener.” This is all true, I realised. All this about a man rising from the dead is true. No writer making it all up would ever think to include such a banal sentence.
Happyinagarden,
When Mary took Jesus for the gardener, her guess was more significant than she knew; it’s not a banal sentence. Christ is the new or true Adam, and Adam was a gardener. John, with this sentence, is pointing to Christ as the new Adam. John does this in other ways, and I think it is Peter Leithart in “A House for My Name” that points out this and the theme of a new creation in John.
Peace,
Jacob
There are a lot of details in the New Testament like that. References to things people just say, or to current events. You are right, nobody would just insert such a detail if it weren’t actually true.
A very insightful article.
And timely. I was just debating whether I have the energy to put in my large garden this year, a task I did last year for the first time in a decade.
I think I do.
There’s something about the original elemental pursuits. . . fishing, hunting, gardening (farming) that keeps us close to where we should be.
Great article. I started gardening for the first time this spring after a winter’s worth of reading about it. It took me a while to get started, because I wanted to minimize my mistakes. But then I said just jump in and learn. It was frustrating the first three weeks but after a few adjustments and not giving up I have my first seedlings. Great feeling. You really do develop a bond with the soil and plants. I look forward every morning and coming home from work to see their development. And my kids are joining me in the fun. Your article hit the spot for me. Thanks.
Tom Papa, It is great to hear of your experience, and that whatever happens next it has already been a blessing for you. Enjoy your plants, and your time with the children.
Love your article!! I find everything you stated when I am gardening, especially this time of year, I just wish the day could be longer, so that I could get more done.
what a great article! much food for thought 😉
I love this idea. We finally moved to a place that has room for a large garden, but I find myself with so much space and so little practical experience that it feels daunting. I suggest to you that if you are serious about being more insistent with your students you may want to give them some exact guidelines on how to get started. Make it more like a true assignment with a kind of rubric to follow. Once they have the experience of starting small and precise they will be able to add and adjust each year in the future based on the first experience.
Michelle M, I love your suggestion. I am going to make an explicit (albeit optional!) assignment with specific details. I’ll start to formulate it right away… Many thanks.
And you can sit back in your garden in the evenings and smoke your pipe 🙂