Pushing through Spring

I've put off posting on here because I've been waiting for some pictures from 2 different friend's cameras, but decided I should just write now, and do the pictures later.

I've continued to base all of my gardening decisions on what people either give me or what I find along the way. With that I've come across some really healthy limitations, as well as some fun collisions of my desires and friend's generosity. The garden is still on the rough road to bringing life, and hasn't really done much improving on the death to life ratio, but right when it get's knocked back someone who is oblivious to the current situation sparks more inspiration into me.

One of those inspirations came from my friend's 4 year old Madison, who told me that she wanted to grow something in a pot. So I got a pot, soil, and seeds for her. When I asked her what she wanted to plant she said "Tomatoes and Squash" (I don't know why she chose squash). The tomato has already sprouted, but the squash is still germinating. That was really encouraging for me and reminded me of the life you can get out of not just gardening, but also just how fun it is to hang out with kids and teach them a bit of how things work (I feel like I'm a kid when it comes to garden knowledge, though.).

Two other cool things were that I had a friend who decided to give me 6 packets of seeds which were amazing...Cucumbers, Oregano, Thyme, Peppermint, Okra, and Sweet Corn. Once again the timing was great for encouraging me, and so I push on through Spring as I now start to see things popping up throughout my garden. The other cool thing is that I found a plant at the store called Chocolate Mint, and it completely lives up to it's name. It smells exactly like a chocolate mint candy, and I'm told that the leaves taste similar too, which means I'll be making some awesome teas.

As far as life metaphors go, I've changed my approach to the garden and tried to remove the rows I had created, based on the advice of a knowledgeable friend. He said you can get three times as much out of a garden if you grow it the way it would in nature. What he meant was to let the climbing beans climb, and let the tomato plants sit under the climbers, and then have the root based plants be under those. So that you have layers as well as a full garden. It's not as pretty, but I like the idea a lot, and it's taken some of the structure out of my approach. This wasn't just for the sake of that idea, but also because my friends said my rows were actually probably worse than to have it flat (for the terrain I'm working with). In that I've also started just sowing much more generously and in almost any place that's reasonable. With that as my approach, I'm left to waiting, and to be surprised by what comes up and what doesn't. This has lead me to a question about God, that I heard, and I really like. "Is God ever surprised by what good things sprout up and takes root in our lives?" I really like to see God working hard, and sowing all these good things into me, but then being surprised when some of it pops up in a random creative way in my life. If he's not, then I am at times. There are many more metaphors... far too many about death at the moment, but I don't want this to be a labor to read for you. Things on the horizon include Aloe Vera, Pomegranate, possibly a Venus Fly Trap, pineapple again, and hopefully some corn. For now I've got lot's of new things growing, which hopefully will be a accurate reflection of my daily life, relationships, activities, etc.