I. Not Everything You Plant Will Grow
I have planted so many things that haven’t grown.
In Arizona, our yard was desert landscaped which means a lot of rocks, but I wanted to grow something. Figuring that zucchini will grow anywhere, in any climate and any type of soils, I cleared away a patch of rocks, worked the soil, and planted zucchini. It never really produced. Later, I learned that homes built in Arizona are treated with a termite barrier, and if you dig around the house’ foundation, you violate the barrier. Oops. I hope the people living there now don’t have termite issues.
Every year since moving to Utah, I have attempted to grow peas. When I pull out the pea seeds, my husband asks why I bother planting peas when I can buy a 5 pound bag already shelled from Costco for $5 (and 5 lbs is more than I’ve ever successfully produced from my garden). It’s a legitimate question. For me there are a lot of reasons. For one, peas do well in cooler temperatures and so they’re some of the first vegetables you can plant in the season. By March I am done with winter and hankering to get out a shovel, turn some dirt and get something planted in the earth. And there is something magical about picking a pod off of a plant and not knowing how many peas will be inside when you crack it open. Maybe there will be two but maybe, this pod will have 8 or 9 or 10 peas. My tongue and tummy feel so bounteous when I slide my teeth down the open pod, delivering those fresh, sweet, green garden buttons to my mouth. But more than that, there is something powerful about activating the law of harvest in my life.
But it can be so frustrating when I’ve tilled and toiled and watered and weeded and there are only a few curly sprigs of growth to show for my labors, particularly when I look over the fence into the neighbor’s yard and see that their crops are thriving.
It can be easy to think that people have a green thumb and everything they touch shoots up like Jack’s beanstalk. But this isn’t true.
Last year, my cub scouts came over and helped me plant two rows of carrot seed. We planned to eat healthy, sweet, crunchy carrot sticks for den meetings in August. But not ONE carrot grew!
It can be easy to think that people have a green thumb and everything they touch shoots up like Jack’s beanstalk. But this isn’t true. Gardening is a gamble. Not everything you plant will grow. Not everything you cultivate will result in a bumper crop.
