What Good?

My dear, wonderful husband asked me last night, “Are these limas the ones from your garden?” *No, honey* ‘Are these tomatoes from your garden’ *No, Honey* ‘What good is it?’

I’ll tell you what good it is! It is the pot of beans simmering on the stove so that tomorrow night’s dinner will be done without hassle. Yes, the snaps and beans are from my garden, and there are more beans in the cupboard awaiting me. It’s the vegetable soup I made this week that fed us all and will feed us another entire meal this weekend. It’s Okra in the freezer that I can pull out at a moment’s notice to toss into a soup or stew, it’s the squash on your plate that maybe wasn’t the best ever, but it was food. It’s the promise the seedlings that are rising from the ground bring with them. It’s the constant blooms that soon will be setting fruit to be enjoyed well into the fall. It’s the intense love of feeling the soil under my nails and knowing that soon enough the bounty will begin again.

My favorite thing right now? Purple fingers. When I’m done collecting a colander full of beans and the girls and I each take turns freeing them from their pods - we giggle because the pods have colored our fingers a beautiful shade of purple. At 3 I’m sure this is about as thrilling ad catching the lizard by the tail and watching the tail wriggle in place long after the lizard has left it behind.

It is unfortunately also torturous in the bug defending category. It’s not easy in this heat and rain to defend my plants and keep them mostly bug free. The bugs have taken full advantage of 2 weeks of rain. They have procreated. Their numbers are increasing and it’s all I can do to crush a few or slice them in half with my shears between rain clouds. The black turtle beans that we love so much are mostly little twigs now and I see no bugs that are leaf eaters out there. Several Nearly half of the little plants will not live through the assault. It’s really getting to late to start more so now I’m left trying to figure what to put in its place.

I love my garden even with all of its faults, it centers me. My children are learning the fundamentals of survival and how the garden (Earth) cycles. IT IS GOOD.

No, he didn’t mean it that way. He was making fun of the fact that I’ve been out plotting, planning, and planting for the last 2 weeks and there is a lull at the moment in production. But, it certainly got me thinking!

Until next time~

Barbie