Oh, the garden!! From the fragrant aromas, colors and textures, to the beauty and abundance you can find here!
When we moved last year, it was a shmita year. A shmita year happens every 7 years. It’s the year where you allow your land/garden to rest. You can find more information about this in Leviticus 25:1-22. It’s a time where your soil and plants are allowed to sit untouched. It was amazing to watch the volunteers come up, to grow and thrive naturally. It was also the season where I had begun to dream about the future garden that would be established on our new property.
In our previous gardening years, we had tried the traditional inground gardening method. It failed miserably, not to our lack of trying but due to the surrounding environment. We realized rather quickly that our property was sitting on an aquifer.
Our property held water if not standing water for weeks at a time. We attempted to bring in soil in the hopes of raising the ground level. It didn’t work like we’d hoped it would.
We’d noticed a neighbor had some really long wooden boards laying on his burn pile. Now, Dylan isn’t one to shy away from asking if he sees something that might be useful. He went over and asked if we could have the wood materials vs them being burned up. We were given permission. The wood had come off of an old 20 ft wooden trailer. Which quickly became the base of our garden. We began installing raised beds and arched trellises.
We successfully filled those beds as cheap as possible, which we then learned a valuable lesson from! The art of composting! Dylan’s family has horses and at the time a massive compost pile of horse manure. That manure along with some free topsoil is what we used to fill our beds. We created a whole new garden almost completely free!
It was amazing that first year and even better the second year! We did fight weeds really bad the first year due to the horse manure compost. We quickly realized that the seeds from the grass and hay the horses eat travel through their body and end up in the compost. If the compost pile doesn’t get hot enough, you’ll have those seeds in your compost. Meaning weeds come garden season!
All these things were beautiful lessons we learned along the way. We did enjoy the abundance of what we grew, but most of all we enjoyed the family time and joy the garden brought us.
It was in this season I; Meagan rediscovered my faith and I found God in the garden. The garden was and still is my refuge. The place I go to find quiet and stillness. To sit and just watch the butterflies and bees. The place I go and pray and get my hands dirty.
This year’s garden season has been such a challenge. I know it’s simply part of it. The first year is typically the most challenging. However, after planting both gardens twice we have yielded some production.
We tilled and planted a vegetable garden down in the valley and its massive. We planted things like corn, tomatoes, peppers, melons and potatoes in that garden. Then the deer came. We call them our garden gremlins because they’ve eaten almost everything!
Lesson for next year… we need FENCING!
The garden up near the house is dreamy and was the most work. It took weeks to build the fence because I worked on it while Dylan was at work. Juggling three little ones, homeschooling and all the animals it quickly became a cirrus! It brought a lot of determination and joy!
This beautiful garden was planted twice. The first time nothing really germinated. Then Mary’s Heirloom Seeds gifted us new seeds. We planted and prayed!! The joy that filled my heart watching life sprout and grow! The amazing herbs and medicinals that we’ve grown this year is amazing!
My dream and goal is to become a certified herbalist. Using the plants God gave to help heal people and also share the knowledge with others!
In all this being shared, I just want to encourage and remind you that gardening is a journey and an experience. Some years the garden does beautifully and others it’s a disaster. Whether you’re gardening from a single pot to an apartment balcony or even backyard garden. Find the beauty in each season! Don’t give up on garden or your gardening dreams.
Keep getting your hands dirty and trying! You’ve got this!
May Yahweh bless you and keep you, may his face shine upon you and may he give you his shalom! – Numbers 6:24-26
Leave a Reply