Teeny, Tiny Miracles

I am not a master gardener. Never have been one to play in the dirt much. I hate bugs. Greg has to kill every single one that enters the house. However,  I haven't been able to get the idea of growing things out of my head lately. So I decided to try to tame the weed and rock ridden 'patio' area of my condo and make a vegetable and fruit garden in the space.
This is not my first go round with this garden, or any garden. In college, I bought some seeds and planted them along the fence. I got, for my diligence, 3 green beans and a tiny, baby squash. This somewhat squelched my interest in gardening.
Then there were the gardening attempts of last spring and fall. I thought that, given their almost weed like status that surely I could get wildflower seeds to grow in the space. I planted them and waited. Nothing. Just the same invasive mint and oak tree volunteers. Then, I decided to try bulbs. I attempted to dig into the ground and plant some tulips. Texas soil is rather unique. I found rocks and then hit rock. Solid, not going anywhere rock. I planted the bulb anyhow. The neighborhood squirrel seemed to enjoy it.
So, given my track record, you can imagine my surprise when, after hours of labor that seemed quite fruitless, I went outside and actually saw tiny, teeny sprouts in my dirt. Not only weed sprouts, but sprouts that actually resembled the lettuce seeds I'd planted in the spot!
The Gospel talks a lot about seeds and planting. The Savior gave the parable of the sower in Matthew chapter 13. 
"3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

 4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

 5 Some fell upon ^astony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

 6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

 7 And some fell among ^athorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

 8 But other fell into good ground, and ^abrought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold."

I'm noticing my own experience to be similar. If I had a parable of the sower, it might go something like this...

Cate went forth to try and grow something in the shady, weed and rock covered patio. Being, at times, somewhat clumsy,  and seed packets having most superior glue, some seeds fell on the sidewalk, or in the cracks near the foundation.  Some seeds fell narrowly into the dirt and the squirrels looked and beheld the seeds, and said to each other..." let us go forth and devour the seeds. For we are famished and the people have fed us." And some fell into the rocks and near the bedrock soil and could not take root. So they became as rocks and remained in the soil. But the weeds sprung up thence and were not scorched, because the weeds have superpowers and the fence provided shade.  And some fell among the invasive mint, which did take all the water and drink thereof, depriving the seeds of the few soil nutrients available. And nothing grew in the garden, save it were mint and oak tree volunteers and slugs. So the gardener read some books.

And the gardener did not give up, but did say unto herself, let me go and prepare good ground, and rid myself of these invasive weeds.  Behold, the gardener did not partake of the roundup, lest she contaminate the soil for the desirable plants. So the gardener thusly took cardboard, and did lay it over the weeds. For it was biodegradable, but would not allow the sun into the plants. Yea, and the gardener did take mulch, for the cardboard could blow away in the Texas spring winds. And the gardener did lay the heavy, mulch over the cardboard and did allow the garden to rest for a season. 

And then, the gardener remembering the multitude of rocks in the soil, did proclaim the need for dirt. So the gardener laid dirt atop the cardboard, until she had acquired the necessary depth, and, for confidence boosting purposes planted plants. Then, on the other half of the garden, the gardener was brave and laid more dirt. She then planted seeds and waited. The gardener, not being a particularly patient person, and noticing no change in the plants save the blossoms falling off the strawberry plants, did become most concerned.

I wonder if in my own pursuits, in my attempts to change my life, if I'm not being too hasty and expecting beautiful shrubbery without preparing the soil. Weeds will grow about anywhere. The beautiful plants I'm seeking to grow require effort.  Soil preparation is hard work and time consuming. You sometimes have to add compost, which I'm learning is poop and rotting food and grass clippings. Compost is less than pleasant but nutritious to the plants.  It also takes time. If you add the compost too soon, before the ingredients have been processed by the bacteria in the soil, it will kill the plants.  You have to build up layer upon layer of soil and compost before you can even plant the seeds. Then you have to wait until weather is right and add the right amount of water and sunlight. You still don't get to enjoy the fruits of your harvest for many, many days and must weeds, mulch and, you guessed it, compost some more!  It takes many days of small, consistent changes and the miracle of the sun, bees and nature to produce garden produce. Perhaps, in our spiritual immaturity we expect to prepare the soil once in our lifetime. We expect the nourishing changes to be easy and pleasant. We don't like the seeming days and days of waiting for change that is unseen at times.

Then, all at once one morning there were glorious sprouts! In the places the gardener had planted seeds. Not being at all sure that they were the desired lettuce, and not the dreaded weeds, the gardener did decide to leave them alone for now and practice the parable of the wheat and the tares. But that is another story. For today, I'm just going to go and enjoy the sight of my tiny green seed sprouts.

Updates from the sporadic blogger!

We've been pretty busy around here lately!
Greg and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary. We are pretty low key about anniversaries and Valentine's day, but we do go to the temple and do sealings. It's a pretty neat experience and the most romantic thing I can think of to do on that day. It's even more wonderful having Sarah now, as it brings a new level of awareness to the fact that families are forever.

February 7 was miss Sarah's first birthday. She was completely oblivious to the fact, but loved that my mom came over with "Nacks!" as she calls them and a new story. I think I've read it a good 1000 times in the last month. ("hand hand fingers thumb....")
We had a small party with our local family. I made her a smash cake with a rather poor attempt of Abby Caddabby's face on it. She wouldn't touch it though, as she HATES getting her hands messy. She wanted it fed to her. With a fork. She loved the happy birthday song and the thoughtful gifts her friends and family brought her.

Elmo cupcakes with blue frosting

She has decided that it's time to walk now. She took her first steps in January, but at stake conference 3 weeks ago she really took off. Now she walks everywhere, usually with her snack cup in hand. Toddle toddle toddle boom!  She also has her one year old molar teeth in now, so her smile definitely looks more like a toddler than a baby smile. Her favorite thing is to go "bye bye." I can't say the word without a rather insistent 13 month old heading for the door, waving her hands and trying to say "buh!" If we don't leave soon enough, she cries. She is also developing into quite the little helper. She loves to help pick up clothes and put them in the laundry basket, put her blocks away (but only the blocks for some reason...) and say "in".





We thought about buying a house and selling the condo, but things fell through twice. I think it's a sign we're supposed to stay put for now. I am thinking about turning our patio space into a mini veggie garden though, to make fruit and vegetables more accessible and to help us be more independent. Guess our chicken dreams will still have to wait for now, but I'm enjoying learning a lot about farming. Some of my favorite reads have been " The Quarter Acre Farm", "A chicken in every yard" and "mini farming: self sufficiency on a 1/4 acre." We definitely don't have a quarter acre yet, but I'm hoping to apply the skill sets to our little condo.