Yesterday (Friday 4/22) was Earth Day. I have to admit that Earth Day is not a huge day for me. We’re a pretty environmentally conscious family. We recycle. We reuse. I remake some clothing. We don’t use paper plates or paper napkins. Nope. Not even when we have 8 extra kids in the house. And when one of them asks we explain that we are being stewards of God’s earth. To us that means minimizing our impact and using things wisely. I try to challenge them.
Every now and again one of those pesky teens challenges me.
Tonight, my son stood looking out at the back yard from the kitchen window. “Can I plant something in that corner? The weedy one?”
“Which weedy corner?” When it comes to our back yard, you have to be a bit more specific. The weedy corner with the telephone pole? Or the weedy corner on top of the hill?
“That one by the telephone pole. Potatoes are really easy. I want to plant potatoes. That’s what we did in biology today.”
Way back before my son was born, I loved to garden. Okay, garden is probably an exaggeration. At our old house, you could throw compost down, minimally turn the soil and stick in some tomato plants. They grew shoulder-high (I’m 5’8”) with stems thicker than my thumb. They had to be staked and propped and grew more tomatoes than we could use. I thought I was something else.
Then we moved. We’ve planted tomatoes. We’ve even tried different places in both the front and back yards. I have managed to get maybe 5 tomatoes total and we’ve been here 14 years. I finally quit trying.
I tend to think that’s why God sent me this boy. To encourage me to try again and to try something a little different. All I know is that I’m eying that corner of the yard and I’m planning to turn that boy loose with a shovel and a pick. For some reason I’ve never felt comfortable abandoning the compost pile so we’ve continued to add to it and turn it. God only knows why because I sure don’t.
But what I do know is this. God has blessed us with this Earth and the things that grow. I’m just here to take care of it to the best of my ability. Maybe just maybe I’ll get a few tomatoes out of the deal.
–SueBE
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4 comments
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April 23, 2016 at 4:38 am
calensariel
Tomatoes are the one thing I’ve been able to grow. They did well for me except for these brown spots on the bottom of each. My neighbor told me my soil was depleted. Sounded plausible. It happened yesterday that my son and I were at Starbucks getting coffee when I noticed a big black bucket labeled “Free Coffee Grounds.” I thought that was kind of weird. But I came home and Googled “coffee grounds and gardening”, and sure enough, they make great fertilizer. They restore the Ph to the soil. I wondered if that’s what I was missing. Anyway, if you need some organic fertilizer you might give a Starbucks a call and see if they do that there. Who knows, might help. Great post, btw.
April 25, 2016 at 1:39 am
suebe
Thank you for the advice. Our compost should have plenty of coffee grounds. Plenty. I can also keep them in a tin for a week. But Starbucks is also between here and the grocery. Hmm. Wondering about locally owned eateries.
May 9, 2016 at 3:59 am
in
It truly was exciting to eat off of our land when my Mom and I had taken up gardening around our house last year. But now that we’ve gotten busy due to a family business, there’s not even enough time to water our plants at least once a day. So days upon days of dryness had gone by, that the plants and food-bearing stuffs had all died. It’s so brown outside. So I kinda know how ya might feel in regards to having an abundance of edible growth, to none at all – or just a handful. There’s like 3 itty-bitty tomatoes still hangin’ on outside, I noticed yesterday. Hoping you have a grand ‘ole time planting once again and that God blesses your hands and the ground with an abundance!
May 9, 2016 at 12:54 pm
suebe
Fingers crossed that we can get things in and help them survive the spring storms. That’s the other issue in Missouri. Put it in and then watch it get beaten in a thunderstorm. Ah well. Somehow plants survived here 150 years ago. Maybe because I wasn’t helping?!