Garden Photos

Though the tomatoes are not quite ripening by the dozens yet (due to this gorgeous, yet early cool weather) our garden is still a place of beautiful harvest. The other day I was outside picking some vegetables, fruits, flowers etc. and since I had my camera with me, I also came away with many pictures which Faith suggested I share with you all. So let me show you our garden.

In the back half of the garden, broccoli and kale, beans and onions, tomatoes and peppers all coincide in harmony.


This year we "strung" our tomatoes and they seem to have enjoyed it, because they are healthy and so bushy that it is difficult to walk between rows!

Smattered here and there at the end of rows are bright beautiful flowers, just enough to lend a splash of color to the green.

Some of the flowers were planted purposely by humans, but all the sunflowers were volunteers.

The front 12 rows of the garden house cucumbers (both pickling and slicing)...

Lettuce (which is actually sprinkled in and out all around the garden)...

4 rows of very healthy corn (which we now realize is not near enough for a family of 7)...

Big, fat, orange carrots (which are rather too large in diameter, if you ask me:)...

and rows and rows of bush beans (some of which decided that they were really pole beans:).

Our vegetable garden is along the west side of our yard which is lined with a chain link fence, and clambering and climbing all along the fence is a grape vine. The picture above, is of our faithful and steadfast "Grapevine Guardian" Garter snake.

The "Vegetable Garden" is just one out of four of our official gardens. Right behind our fence lies the sprawling Squash and Pumpkin patch, which is hedged in by potatoes.

Our Butternut Squash have taken a while to set on (the picture is of one of our volunteer squash plants in the compost/weed pile) so we are hoping for enough warm weather that they will ripen in time.

Last but not least (besides our Strawberry patch of course) is the melon patch. We have never succeeded with melons, in fact our watermelons have never gotten bigger than 4-6 inches in diameter and were always green, and our cantaloupes never came at all.

We were overjoyed this year to find our melons actually growing, and while we don't have near as many melons as could be reasonably expected from the number of plants we have, there is one beautiful watermelon which has exceeded our expectations, and is currently as large as any melon seen in the store! There are also about a half dozen-or-so cantaloupes around the size of a softball.
I think that gardens, almost more than anything teaches you patience, reliance, and trust on God's providence. Because you can only do so much to the plants. The harvest... That is up to God.
~Chs

Meditate at eventide

“Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide.”

Genesis 24:63

Very admirable was his occupation. If those who spend so many hours in idle company, light reading, and useless pastimes, could learn wisdom, they would find more profitable society and more interesting engagements in meditation than in the vanities which now have such charms for them. We should all know more, live nearer to God, and grow in grace, if we were more alone. Meditation chews the cud and extracts the real nutriment from the mental food gathered elsewhere. When Jesus is the theme, meditation is sweet indeed. Isaac found Rebecca while engaged in private musings; many others have found their best beloved there.

Very admirable was the choice of place. In the field we have a study hung round with texts for thought. From the cedar to the hyssop, from the soaring eagle down to the chirping grasshopper, from the blue expanse of heaven to a drop of dew, all things are full of teaching, and when the eye is divinely opened, that teaching flashes upon the mind far more vividly than from written books. Our little rooms are neither so healthy, so suggestive, so agreeable, or so inspiring as the fields. Let us count nothing common or unclean, but feel that all created things point to their Maker, and the field will at once be hallowed.

Very admirable was the season. The season of sunset as it draws a veil over the day, befits that repose of the soul when earthborn cares yield to the joys of heavenly communion. The glory of the setting sun excites our wonder, and the solemnity of approaching night awakens our awe. If the business of this day will permit it, it will be well, dear reader, if you can spare an hour to walk in the field at eventide, but if not, the Lord is in the town too, and will meet with thee in thy chamber or in the crowded street. Let thy heart go forth to meet him.

~C. H. Spurgeon