GARDEN DIARIES

I wake up really early these days, early but not well rested. Being with out power is exhausting. I feel like I am in a constant state of panic about when and if our power ever gets turned back on. I know this is silly. Powerless really means that you are powerless. But this why I found myself sneaking out to the garden early Sunday morning for my church. The garden was much neglected. We had been out of town and then a tree fell into part of it. The garden was a mess. Cucumbers had started creeping into the onions. I had drooping plants from trampled work boots and tree. One whole bell pepper plant was lost completely. So, I got to work cleaning up sticks, pulling weeds, and building a cucumber coral. I trimmed up the lettuce and righted the toppled tomato plant with hopes that it will bounce back. I sprayed everything with soap and dusted leaves with Dipel Dust. And then I sat back and just looked.

I am always surprised by the things I find each week in the garden. The bell pepper plant that survived has a pepper. There's a couple of tiny cucumbers and lots of squash. But this week, I am most surprised by the resilience of our little garden. Two weeks after planting those seeds, it snowed. We've had side-ways rain and wind. We've had a tree land in it. But there it is, still going. I think if the garden can do it, so can we.