Garden

    We are a thrifty family. We make our own laundry soap and lip balm. I have constructed the majority of our furniture (more on that in future posts). So of course we have a garden this year. The university we are attending has a wonderful student run activities program. One of those programs offers students a 15x15 garden plot of just $10 for the whole year.
    We participated in this program two years ago (2012), however we were inexperienced and I was working 20 hrs/week. We went to Walmart and spent around $60 on plants. Then we dug up our ground and planted everything in nice rows with water ditches in between. Sadly we had late frosts that year, and the more tender plants froze. We tried to weed and care for our plants, but with going to school full-time and working part time I just did not have the energy to spend much time out there. It is also located about a mile from our home, so we can't just go out and weed in our spare time. As the semester wore on our garden got out of control and we gave up. We ended up with a few herbs and a ton of weeds. I was discouraged and felt like I had a black thumb.
    So when my wife asked me if I wanted to have a garden this years I initially said no. However I realized after a bit that she really wanted to have a garden, and I just shattered her dreams of being a gardener. I quickly apologized and purchased the plot. This year (2014) was going to be better. We started doing research. Well... my wonderful wife did most of the research. She learned everything she could about square foot gardening and even enrolled in a Gardening class on campus. Under her watchful care we got fertilizer, peat moss, top soil, and lots of seeds. We prepared our soil, divided the plot into sections with plenty of room in the walk ways.


This is just an example of how Square foot gardening works. It is not what we planted.

    For the first month we would spend 3-4 hours every Saturday weeding and planting. We used plant food every other week. We used dish soap to keep the bugs away. It was a lot work. And just like in the parable of the wheat and the tares, (Matthew 13: 24-30) some weeks we could not tell the difference between the young plants and the weeds. So we just let them grow until they were stronger and distinguishable from the weeds. I got sunburned a few times, but it was worth it. We had a wonderful harvest. We got carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, peas, green beans, onions, lettuce, dill, basil, zucchini, summer squash, spaghetti squash, and pumpkins. All from a 15x15 plot of dirt.

    Sadly many of the plots around us look like ours did in 2012. But we have learned the law of the harvest. We have so much produce. When we get a house, we will make sure to set up a small garden in the back yard. Spending time with dirt can be very soothing, and it will teach our future children important life lessons.