Growing

Before we were parents and in PhD-panic mode, Jeremy and I used to like to cook together. It was one of our few overlapping hobbies and interests, and we enjoyed spending time wielding knives and selecting spices in the kitchen together. It doesn't happen often anymore, but this past week we've been delighted to discover that perhaps we have found a new hobby which we can do together and enjoy: gardening!

We have a landscaping service that does the lawn etc, but not the beds... and there was a large, dry, circular bed in the middle of our back garden that was begging for some attention. Even though we are already well into summer, we decided that we would try and grow some vegetables in it... and during the last 2 weeks we chucked various compostable substances (like rotting fruit from other trees, and random roots that J dug up while trying to repair the irrigation system) into the bed as an attempt to try and nutrify (that's not a word, but humour me) the soil.

Saturday was 'Operation Vegetable Patch' day. Behold Jeremy with his ludicrous Farmer Brown pose for me as a "before" picture.



Next: try and break the ground using ye-old-rototiller.


Ahem. Then discover rather quickly that our idea of chucking roots, branches and citrus fruit into the mix and hoping for some rapid composting wasn't such a great idea. Commence 2 hours of manually picking citrus peels, broken roots, and large sticks out of the ground. Teg loved this part: she ran multiple trips carrying individual sticks and roots to the "new" compost pile in the corner, declaring each piece to be "yucky".

Finally: till the ground again. Aaaaaahhhhh. Much better. Behold my very tired and sweaty husband beside his newly conquered piece of earth.


We then declared it to be lunch and nap time for all of us. Gotta love family naps. We awoke rejuvenated and headed to Starbucks for a refreshing afternoon iced beverage, and included a fun giraffe ride for Teg at the store next door. Behold Teg trying to cajole her daddy into joining the fun:



Somehow, she was having a hard time understanding why Daddy couldn't ride on the giraffe.

Finally, we returned home and it was time to plant seeds! While Daddy and Mommy deliberated about what to plant where, Teg practiced cruising on her 'bikey'.


We planted sweet corn, zucchini, yellow summer squash, carrots, lettuce, spinach, green beans, cayenne peppers, arugula (rocket), italian parsley, curly parsley, rosemary, thyme, sunflowers, marigolds, chives, tomatoes, scallions (spring onions), oregano and basil.



The final step: watering! Tegwyn was particularly helpful for this part.


Voila! The finished product! Look at all my pretty flags too! It doesn't look like much now, but within 14 days we should have all manner of little green things poking their heads through the soil. We are excited!


There is something particularly poignant about growing these herbs and vegetables while being pregnant. Somehow, being able to see the miraculous, visible, rapid growth of little plants which started out as dead-looking seeds in apparently dead-looking earth reminds us of the miracle of unfolding life happening unseen in my tummy.

And it can't but remind me too that this is exactly how spiritual growth happens. Someone hears something about Jesus, a "seed", which seems insignificant in the time and gets "buried" in their thoughts and hearts - but some time later, who knows what amazing growth comes! (Mark 4:1-20)

So be it veggies, babies, or eternal life; these words are apropos:
"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow." (1 Corinthians 3:6)