Goodthoughts

Garden slide show

more about "Garden slide show", posted with vodpod

A walk through the Garden of Eden

We have a vegetable garden this year...we call it the Garden of Eden.   It's a pretty little garden beside our ancient garage in the backyard. I made the sign after the unfortunate bluebird incident with the snake...it says in small letters under the name, "No snakes allowed!"   So far, so good.

This is a bird's eye view from our upstairs bathroom. Chuck and I love looking at our garden from here.   The front part is an herb garden.  We have 2 butterfly bushes, basil, catmint, sage, rosemary, thyme, parsley, lavender, bee balm, oregano(which may some day take over the world!),feverfew, an old fashioned rose bush like my grandmother always had and lots of zinnias and cosmos...some still sprouting.  This garden attracts  bees and butterflies like crazy.  We don't have it fenced since the deer don't like herbs. 

The middle section is fenced and has 4 raised beds.  We expanded our planting area inside the fence and have tomatoes, okra, eggplant, watermelon, squash, cucumbers, beans and sunflowers planted around the perimeter. 

We want to plant potatoes and another round of beans so Chuck dug up another 350 square feet in sort of a semi-circle at the far end.  .  He's still digging but maybe it will be ready to plant in another week.  We will open up the fence on the far side and move it around the new part of the garden.  Deer are very daring here...they keep everything in the backyard "pruned" very well!  I really like the shape of the garden now.  I think it's the way it's supposed to be

Our garden is organic.  This afternoon I found a praying mantis on the front porch and gave him a free trip in a former peanut butter jar to the vegetable garden.  I'm hoping he will be standing guard over our tomato plants and feasting on any pesky bugs that might want to eat the tomatoes before we do.

We're trying to cooperate with nature instead of poisoning it.  There are a lot of added benefits to gardening that way.  Chuck had butterflies landing on his shoulder while he was digging.   The garden's evolving into a beautiful place that brings us a lot of joy.
"I am the Vine, you are the branches.  When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant."--Jesus

John 15:5 The Message Bible

The fence garden

The white fence was already here when we moved into our yellow Victorian farmhouse 4 years ago.  There was grass growing in the 12 inches between the fence and the sidewalk.  The first summer we just weed-whacked the grass growing under the fence.  The former owners had giant sunflowers planted inside the fence that bobbed happily in the wind.  We enjoyed the sunflowers...they made the fence seem less serious.

The next spring we decided to add to the sunflower theme.  Chuck dug up the narrow grass strip and I planted flowers on the outside of the fence.  It instantly made the fence more welcoming.

Now it's my favorite place to garden.  The smallness of it makes it more of a challenge to squeeze everything in.   The first year it was an orderly arrangement of blue salvia on the back row with alternating yellow marigolds and short red zinnias in the front.  It was pretty but too short.

From that year it has blossomed into a wild experiment of all sort of colors and shapes and sizes. Some, like the blue salvia and Huntley's yellow heliopsis, are always there.  Others, like the hyssop and angelonia, are new this year.  Some things work out the way I plan and some things don't.  I move things around and cut things back and pull things out all summer long...it's a work in progress that brings a lot of pleasure to me... the dirt gardener... and hopefully, the people passing by.

So, if you're wondering why I'm not writing 2 or 3 times a week in the summer...it's because I'm outside covered in dirt and having a wonderful time in the flowers.  Here are some pictures from 2 days ago.  See if you can spot the poison ivy growing among the flowers!!  Maybe tomorrow...the vegetable garden!

Looking to the Light

I painted “Looking to the Light” for my sister, Christy. She and her husband, Kyle, have three little girls and she wanted a visual reminder that God was the center of their family. Their little bluebird family is marching down life’s road together with their wings wrapped around each other in love. The triangles, symbols of God’s love and direction, assure them that they are going the right way--no GPS tracking needed here! As with most families with young children, life can be a challenging uphill climb! But as they look to the horizon they see an angel pointing to three beautiful gifts God has placed along the way--all they have to do is stick together one step at a time! It sure looks worth the climb!

Christy was explaining the painting to her 3 girls, Ellie, 6...Emma, 3...Cara was still a baby.  Emma, the middle child, said, "But I want to be a red bird!"  We all want to stand apart from the crowd, don't we!  Emma, you'll always be a red bird to me!

Looking to the Light
Acrylic on canvas
22 x28 inches
2004

Seeing possibilities

Have you ever had something that was perfectly good...but you wanted to get rid of it?  Maybe it didn't suit your taste or it was too high maintenance or you just plain didn't like the looks of it!  That's how I felt about the holly bush in front of our porch...the tall green bush on the right side of the picture.  It always needed trimming and because its branches went all the way to the ground it just looked too massive for the flower bed.  I've been secretly planning its demise for the last two years. 

One day while Chuck and I were sitting in the front porch rockers, I mentioned all the shortcomings of the holly bush.   Chuck agreed and we decided a crape myrtle or Japanese maple would be much prettier to look at.  A tree wouldn't block our view of the flower bed but would still give us some privacy from the street.  Mr. Holly Bush would soon be history!

The next week while watering the flower bed I looked at the holly tree...really looked at it...and I realized it might have possibilities!  What if I trimmed off all the lower branches and let the top part grow like a tree?  Twenty minutes later I stood admiring my "new" holly tree.  It was just the look I wanted there. 

The holly tree seemed to like its new look, too.  Almost overnight, its tight little branches that I had been trimming all these years shot out and up like the graceful tree it had become!  Maybe it was grateful I gave it a make-over instead of the ax!

It made me wonder how many opportunities I'd missed in my life by not taking time to see the possibilities in a situation.  You know, I think sometimes God wants us to slow down and think differently...that's what creativity is all about!  The chances are whatever you need in your life right now...God's already placed in your path...maybe you're in too big a hurry to take the time to look...really look at what is right in front of you. 

Could it be that the very thing in your life that irritates you or you want to get rid of...is really just what you need?  Maybe it just takes looking at things from a new perspective...to see with fresh eyes...to see the possibilities!

Strawberry fields forever

Chuck and I went to pick strawberries this morning at a Motley's farm about 10 miles from here.  Strawberries grow there in neat rows as far as you can see.

There is something magical about picking strawberries to me.  You come away with a lot more than fruit...you come back with some wonderful memories, too.    Strawberries just look so pretty dangling there ...red and juicy on the vine...just begging to be picked!   It was a relaxing experience...picking the ripe berries in the cool morning air...talking as we crouched low between the long rows of strawberry plants...filling our two baskets to the brim!

It made me think of other days of picking strawberries with my favorite Aunt Lora who died at 97 a couple of years ago.  She liked to take me strawberry picking because I was short and young and could crouch around on the ground forever without complaining about my back hurting! 

One time in particular, after picking for what seemed like forever...we took our strawberries back to Auntie's house to wash them off and put them away.  When it was time for me to go home she proudly presented me with a quart to take home.  I must have been all of 6 years old but remember feeling a little short-changed by the strawberry picking experience!!  But what I didn't realize at the time was that Auntie would pay me many times over for my help in homemade strawberry ice cream and pound cake!

But today Chuck and I brought our 17 lbs of strawberries home and washed them all up.  We froze about half of them,  ate some...yum...yum...and bagged some up and took them to a few of our friends at church who can't get out to the fields themselves anymore. 

What a nice day!!   Cutting strawberries together on opposite sides of the kitchen table...eating a few as we cut...being together...making sweet, strawberry flavored memories.  The best part of today...and any day.

A snake in the Garden of Eden

We named our little vegetable garden the "Garden of Eden"...and everything was peaceful and happy in the garden until late Saturday afternoon...when the snake came.

Our bluebird house is next to the fence of our garden.  We've enjoyed watching the bluebirds build their nest and raise their four babies.    After supper Saturday night Chuck and I went out to the garden to check the box.  I had my camera so I could take an up to the minute picture of the new baby birds for our kids at church to see.  Sometimes during the morning worship service at church I tell the children a story.  This Sunday I was planning to tell the story of our baby bluebirds...Chuck was preaching about the creation story in Genesis...so it would fit right in with his sermon...but things changed.

I put my wooden stool in front of the bluebird house so I could step up to see in...but then I noticed something startling and my heart sank...I could see a snake inside the hole!   I yelled for Chuck and we both scurried around trying to get the snake out.  Chuck finally managed to drive the snake out of the box and kill it.  You could see 4 bulges in the snake where the bluebirds had been eaten.  We felt so sad...those tiny birds had touched our hearts as we watched them grow...we missed them...and felt empathy for the mom and dad bluebird.  It was a somber evening.

I knew I couldn't tell the story of the bluebirds now...I know... it's the circle of life...things happen in nature...but I couldn't tell it...not to the little children...not now.  I asked God why he let the snake eat those little birds...I didn't get an answer.  So, I just had to say, "I don't understand this and a lot of other things, but I trust you with it."  Chuck reminded me of a story in the book, Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul, that our friend, Liz, gave us for Christmas.  It told about some children who planted a garden...I only vaguely remembered reading it.    The book was in his office at church. I didn't really care.   I went to sleep without a story for the children.

Sunday morning I went to church, found the Chicken Soup book and read the story, "The Kids on the Point," by Sheila Stroup.  It's such a touching story...I knew the children would love it.  Here's the story in a nutshell.

A lady named Barbara Longworth moved to a charming but run down neighborhood in New Orleans.  She noticed a boy and a girl tearing up flowers in her neighbor's yard.  After seeing them do this several times she confronted them and asked if they would like to help her plant a garden.  They did.

She had little money but felt that this was important for her to do.  The kids loved Barbara and the gardening.  They told their friends and they wanted gardens, too.  Soon, over 20 kids were gardening.  They formed a club, The Kids on the Point, and took on the beautification of the whole neighborhood. 

The gardening spread from Barbara's yard, down the street spreading friendship and order everywhere they went.  They planted a vegetable garden and shared the produce.  People left gloves and flowers on Barbara's doorstep to help.  The good works of the children was infectious and people quit littering and started taking pride in their neighborhood again.  Lives changed one flower at a time. 

As I told the story Sunday at church, the kids were as still and wide-eyed as I had ever seen them.  It was obvious they were really taking it all in.  I asked them to think about what they could do here to make our town more beautiful and share kindness with others. 

After church, several children told me how much they liked the story.  Then, Katherine looked up at me, smiling, and said, "We can do that!  Even if we just have a few kids at first...we can do it!"  She was waiting for an answer...her enthusiasm was contagious.  I smiled back and told her, "You're right, we can do it!  I think I know a nice lady who might be just the person to start with...she loves flowers, but can't garden like she used to.  Maybe she would like a small flower bed close to her front porch.  I'll call her and see."

On the way home from church, I got to thinking about the bluebirds, the snake and the children's story.  It's strange how life has some curious twists and turns.  If the snake hadn't eaten the bluebirds...I would never have told the children the story about the Kids on the Point...and Katherine and others wouldn't be thinking about planting flowers to help people.

Now, I'm not ready to say that God had the snake eat the baby birds so I would change my children's story for Sunday.  But, maybe... just maybe... when we let him,  God takes bad and sad things in our lives and brings hope and kindness to take its place.  I believe that's what happened Sunday.  I still miss the bluebirds and am sad when I think about the snake getting them.  But when we plant the flowers in our friend's yard next week...I'll think about how good things can come out of bad situations...and be thankful for children who want to make a difference... bringing hope and beauty to our town...one flower at a time. 

All is well.  Thank you, God!

Baby Bluebirds

As you might have guessed...I love bluebirds!  I have a lot of bluebird knick-knacks and pictures that people have given me over the years.  But my  favorite bluebirds are the ones that nest in our backyard.  Four baby bluebirds hatched out of their blue eggs about a week ago.  The bluebird box is beside our vegetable garden so we get a front row seat for this special springtime event!

Most days I go out to the bluebird house and peep into the top of the box... say "hello" to the babies... and take some pictures.  Here are a few shots from their baby book.  I'll add more as time goes on.

This was the first time we saw the baby birds on May 8th.  They were all mouths...even when asleep!  The pink skin gives no clue that they're bluebirds, but that will change quickly.

We had a lot of rain the week after they were hatched, but this picture below was taken on May 13.  You can see they're starting to be covered with feathers and they're sleeping with their mouths closed now.  We also realized we had 4 babies instead of 3 as we had first thought.

By the next day, the little birds were all fuzzy and cute.  They look very cozy all snuggled deep in their nest together...waiting patiently for their next feeding.

It's now May 15 and you can tell they look a little bigger and more alert every day....as you can tell by these last pictures.  

Our whole backyard is teaming with wildlife...birds, bees, deer, worms,  snakes (ooooo!)  and a chubby bunny as big as a small dog!

When I think about the love I feel for these tiny bluebirds, it reminds me how much God loves you and me.

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.  Luke 12:6-7 NIV

 

Tending the path...again

I wrote this post back in February for our other blog, Eden's Path.  Since then, spring rains came in buckets and Chuck and I have been busy planting a new vegetable garden.  The labyrinth has taken a backseat to our other yard work.  The weeds have returned and I'm back where I started!  Our labyrinth is an ever present reminder that our spirits are a lot like nature...other things creep in when we're not mindful.  No matter how old or wise you become...life is always about... tending the path.

Late Monday afternoon, while Chuck was filling up the bird feeders, I grabbed my trowel and walked down to our labyrinth. It sits on the far end of our backyard where it’s peaceful and quiet…well, almost. There’s one exception…or maybe hundreds…it’s those screaming wild onions dancing down our peaceful path!

I do see the irony of it all. Me sitting in the middle of the labyrinth, thinking about life, being thankful to God, listening to the birds singing, and wondering how to kill the onions dead in a nontoxic, environmentally friendly sort of way. The vinegar I tried this fall only made them curly!

So, Monday I decided if the labyrinth is a metaphor for life’s journey…I’d better think differently about the onions. I started in the center and started digging them up with my trowel. Each above ground onion must have 25 to 50 underground bulbs! If this is a battle, I’ve already lost.

All I can do is tend the path. After about 15 minutes of digging, I thought this tending was going to be too hard to do. But then, I got my second wind and kept going. An hour later, Chuck helped me put the wilted onions into the wheel barrow. My back ached, but I felt better, more peaceful.

Chuck and I walked the labyrinth together as the sun was going down. A few onions I missed waved at us as we walked by, but they didn’t bother me so much as before. I think the tending was good for me.

Digging up the onions and seeing all those little bulbs up close made me realize how amazing they really were…they were doing a great job… of being onions! Maybe… the onions just need some fast growing neighbors to keep them in check. Maybe… we could plant some thyme, candytuft and creeping jenny on the labyrinth. And maybe… we’re learning a better way to think..while we’re outside tending the path.

Playing outside

It's that time of year again...SPRING...when all of creation is knocking on my front door and saying..."Can you come out and play?" More times than not my answer is..."Sure, I'm on my way!"

And that's where I've been every sunny day and a few rainy days, too...outside digging and planting and mulching.  My friend, Montrue and I, make little trips several times a week to our favorite nurseries around town.  We can't resist "oohing" and "aaahing" over the baby petunias or impatiens and other beauties.  Most of the time we come back home with a few colorful flowers we've "adopted" for our gardens.  Gardening with friends is twice the fun! 

My husband, Chuck, is really getting into gardening, too.  We've had so much fun building and planting our raised bed vegetable garden together.  We are trying to be more environmentally friendly gardeners this year.  Instead of using Roundup,  Chuck ordered a handheld weed torch from the Lehman's catalog.  We just got it and will try it out tonight.  Hopefully, we will be able to kill the weeds without setting the backyard on fire!  I'll keep you posted on how it works.

Come with us on our daily tour of the yard.  These pictures were taken after a rain shower.  We had just finished putting beautiful dark mulch in all our flower beds.  Everything looked so nice and neat and then the rain and wind came.  The dogwood blossoms look like they were scattered all over the yard by some overly ambitious flower girl!   Gardening's like life...always changing...so you might as well see the beauty every step along the way...it's there if you look for it!

Now we're in the backyard.  Our herb garden by the driveway is starting to come back to life.  The catmint will be blooming in a few days.  Our raised bed veggie garden is just behind the herb garden...fenced in to protect it from the hungry deer!

Chuck and I are talking more about our journey of vegetable gardening and living a sustainable life on our blog,  Eden's Path.

We have a bluebird house on the other side of the garden fence.  It has a little bluebird family with 3 blue eggs.  It's nice to see mom and dad sitting on the garden fence.

I'm off to the backyard to weed the labyrinth...which brings to mind a whole other thought...but that will keep for another day.  Stay in the sunshine!!