22 August 2008

This year, we decided to make our herb garden a bit smaller. When we moved to this home (a little over 6 years ago) we planted the garden it in our backyard in a circle to cover up a large dirt patch where the previous owner’s pool used to sit.

The patch has worked wonderfully, though in past years it as been a bit much to keep up on. This year it was decided to make the garden smaller. In the extra part that was going to turn into yard, flowers started to grow; so we didn’t mow over them, and the finches have enjoyed playing on the stems.

Our herb garden consists of herbs, sunflowers, Black-Eyed Susans, and a variety of other flowers. Earlier this year the garden also contained zucchini, tomatoes, onions, and garlic.

This is one of our homegrown onions. They’re cute, and though smaller than the ones you can buy at the store, it is so rewarding to know that it was grown here at home. I don’t like the texture of onions, but the flavor enhances any fried dish!

These are my chickens and hens. I have adults, young adults, teenagers, children, toddlers, and infants. Quite a wide variety, they just keep growing. About two years ago, my aunt gave me several children chickens and hens. They were spread out nicely in a patch probably about one and a half feet square.

Since I first planted them, they have about quadrupled in size. I hadn’t transplanted any of the young ones until this summer, and was quite surprised to see how many were packed in such a little area. There were around 120, and I ended up transplanting about 2/3s of them.

They looked much more roomy. I spread them out 2-3 inches apart (the younger ones, I left the mature adults where they were, it was the young ones that were crowding them), over a nice sized area. After I’d taken all the young ones out of the small patch, I realized how ugly they all had been before. Before, the leaves (or petals) had been sticking straight up, but after many of the others were removed, they were able to relax, almost saying, “Ah, we can breathe.”

These are just a few of the babies that I transplanted. I have since found that the weeds grow up very quickly in this area. Hopefully I’ll keep up on it all so the weeds do not take over the chickens.

The Black-Eyed Susans have had a beautiful year. We only had a few plants last year, but this year they’ve taken over about a fifth of the garden.

On a cool afternoon, the garden is a peaceful place to sit and pull weeds, thinking and praying. It is a small place of refuge for the birds, where they find delicious grubs, play on the sunflower stalks and bathe themselves in the coolness of the water. It is a place where the wild bunnies find fresh plants to munch on when they are hungry, or just need a snack.

In just a few months the flowers will wither away, and no longer will there be the bright colors to gaze at. But the Lord is faithful and next spring the plants will be seen, growing inch by inch, with the freshness of a new life.

Categories: Encouragement, God's Creation, The Home