Julia's garden

My youngest daughter has decided that she wants to be a farmer. Her best friend's family is connected to a farm, and the two girls have a dream about running the farm and growing their own food. So I wasn't surprised when, back in January, Julia announced that she wanted her own garden space this spring.

She asked for two tomato plants and some carrot and cucumber seeds, and when we were shopping for a few bedding plants, she begged for pansies, and planted them next to her garden box. Her cucumbers are up, a few carrots have sprouted, and the one tomato plant that didn't succumb to a cut worm is doing alright. Her sudden interest in gardening inspired her older sister to ask for a box, too, and Suzanna planted pumpkins in hers, which I expect will try to take over our backyard lawn space. But that's okay from our family's "grow food, not lawn" point of view!

I'll leave you with a quotation I like, and some pictures of what's blooming in my yard. More to come!

I think gardening is nearer to godliness than theology. True gardeners are both iconographers and theologians insofar as these activities are the fruit of prayer ‘without ceasing.’ Likewise, true gardeners never cease to garden, not even in their sleep, because gardening is not just something they do. It is how they live.

 - Vigen Guroian, The Fragrance of God

See the happy little bee in the nearest flower?