I don't dream of owning a house one day, but I do have a dream garden. I want a BIG vegetable garden. Some fruit trees or bushes wouldn't go amiss either. I'd plant marigolds around the border - they're a pest deterent and they are so bright and sunny. I'd plant all sorts of leafy greens, leeks, pumpkins, cucumbers, tomatoes, and beetroot (homemade pickled beetroot - yum!!!). And herbs. Parsley and coriander particularly. But the fruition (get it!? get it?! Jonathan and I love puns. Well, Jonathan loves puns and I love Jonathan so therefore I love puns) of such a dream isn't in the near future at least, so I decided to make do with whatever I do have. After all, I'm not exactly a green thumb (weeds grow without frequent watering, so surely plants can too???).
This is what our back garden looks like. I love it. All the different greens (gorgeous!). All the many gaps (very useful!). Here's what I've planted in the garden:
These are my celery plants. When I buy celery, I chop the bottom of the bunch off and put it in a bowl of water on my window sill and leave it a few days until it starts to grow out the top. Then I plant it (pictured is one I was about to plant). And water it lots (celery is a thirsty plant). I am very pleased with how these are growing - they are now ready to start picking stalks off as I need to. For a more traditional looking upright bunch, you have to contain the plant with a container of some sort. I didn't have anything suitable so I've just let them grow as is.
These are my spring onions. As you can see, they have gone to flower so I need to cut them back. I grew these from the roots of spring onions I bought, and from a few onions that started to sprout. I just planted them and they've grown. Very easy and very cheap - just cut what you need and it'll grow back!
Love my parsley so have half a dozen small plants slowly growing (I bought these as seedlings). And some chives which were already in the garden when we moved in.
Here we have pak choy in the foreground which I've grown from seeds. Then in pots (L-R) is more parsley, mint, cumquat, and aloe vera. Behind the pots is my compost heap. I grew up with all food scraps either being composted or going to the dog/cat, and have found it very hard renting in the city where you have to put it in with the rubbish. I ease my conscience by composting what I can in the limited space we have. I am looking forward to this lot finishing breaking down so I can dig it through the garden as the soil isn't the greatest quality.
The hailstorm from yesterday flattened the seedlings I had moved outside so I've planted some more seeds. Here we have (L-R) more pak choy, silverbeet, and cos lettuce. I was going to plant coriander seeds too. But I can't find my coriander seeds so I'll do them another time. (Don't you just love my little watering 'jug' - I got that little cutie at the Salvos).
Gardens and gardening are full of allegories and parables so I can't finish up without spouting some of my own!
As I was pushing the silverbeet seeds into the soil this morning, I thought about the poor things getting pushed under the dark soil. In a week or so they'll sprout and grow up and out and I'll be able to see the plants. But for now their work is unseen.
A bit like mothers.
We stay-at-home-mums certainly do seem to be thought to not be doing much at home in our society. Not that I'm always busy doing stuff or being productive - while some weeks I can't seem to get on top of all that needs doing, eventually a day or two comes where I can breathe a sigh of relief and just enjoy my girls. And I do. I don't feel guilty, because mothering, after all, isn't simply about keeping kids fed and clean and clothed. A lot of the work is simply in being with them. Quantity time with your kids is, after all, better than quality time (yes, it does say quantity before quality. Recent research on children and their development/happiness/success has shown this. Kids need their mums [and dads too of course]!. It's in the day to day of life that most of their growing and being shaped happens).
With Abigail talking and blossoming into a little girl, I am mindful of how I tend my little 'gardens'. While I am to keep our home running efficiently, I am also to be 'busy' sowing into my children's lives. Good things; godly things; as well as practical things. To teach them the Word of God in the day to day.
God make me humble - to not seek status in the eye's of the world. And give me an eternal perspective of my role as mother - it's value in your eyes, especially when I feel undervalued or unvaluable.
And please, one day, may I have a big vegetable garden!
