PLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING

Most of my gardening, these days, involves using planters and baskets in my yard or on my deck. Though I lack many skills, I do enjoy germinating seeds or potting vegetables. It makes me smile.

This weekend I was at a Lowe's gardening center, looking for a Mother's Day gift. While there, I remembered a couple of pots for the front yard that needed to be filled. On a budget, I thought I would look at some of the discounted trays of plants. The tray had starter plants that looked wilted, with lifeless leaves and sagging petals. If the trays weren't labeled, I wouldn't have recognized the flowers. However, for $.50 a tray, if only a few plants survived, I would be ahead of the game.

Rather than fill 2 flower pots, I ended up with 4 pots of flowers, and I also had marigolds to plant around my tomatoes to ward off insects.  Though I carefully put the plants into the soil, petals still fell off into my hands. Even more fell as I watered the soil. A few plants had no more than root and nubs of stems left. I wondered how many plants would make it through the night.

To my surprise, the next morning the begonias, inpatients, and even the marigolds looked refreshed and full. By the next day, even the nubby plants were showing new growth. My $2.00 worth of flower trays filled over 4 flower pots and each pot had flowers that are all ready blooming.

All the flowers needed was a new, healthy environment to flourish.

It makes me smile.

I've often felt like those flowers. I want to grow and flourish, but I've stumbled into an unhealthy environment where I seem to only wilt. As difficult as it was, I've had to change my environment. Though the changes difficult, the results health wise--and mental health wise--were worth it. I've even had doctors say they could tell, from one check-up to the next, that I had done something drastic which improved my health. The change was completely environmental.

 We are like flowers. We need the right environment in which to grow.

LIKE A SEED

Yesterday, I transplanted arugula and spinach into large pots on my deck. These plants like the cooler side of spring and I will soon have fresh greens for my salads. I am especially pleased that I was able to germinate these plants from seeds.

I germinated several other variety of seeds this spring; basil, banana peppers, parsley, chives, morning glories, 4 o'clock, and marigolds. Easter came early this year so I started my seed project on Good Friday. I set up a table by the glass deck door where the tubes of seeds would get plenty of sunlight.

There's something a little exciting about putting seeds into the soil, examining each seed and knowing that the design contains the genetic material to make a flower or fruit. Then the soil is gently moistened and then I must wait to see what happens.

Will I be successful? Will the seed germinate? Will I have a seedling or have I seen the seed for the last time?

Maybe, because it was Good Friday, the whole experience reminded me of the Easter story. The body of Christ was put into the ground and his followers thought they would never seen Him again. Yet, on Easter He arose to greet the women who came to the tomb.

And now my plants are ready to go outside. The pepper plant will grow tall and the morning glories will bloom. Spring is filled with the promise of new beginnings and reminders of our faith.

FROM SEED TO FRUIT

For the past couple of years I've been experimenting with gardening. Nothing big, just a few large pot for some starter plants.  The patio tomatoes have been successful. The banana peppers, not so much.

I am doing better in my backyard experiment than last year and as I enjoy a sandwich, made with a tomato I grew, I meditate on how gardening is a lot like writing.

1. You start out with a seed of an idea. It may come from a dream, a "what if" idea, or an inner person that wants to be known by the outside world. Most people get these seeds.  They dismiss them and the seed is seldom planted.

2. Writers commit to the seed. They put words to paper--or electronic device. They are like the gardeners  as they outline and create a story.

3. The outline is finished. Now the writer, like the gardener, tills the soil and nurtures the seedling. The writer completes a book.

4. The gardener watches the plant grow and becomes impatient as time passes.  He has done all he can do. He feeds the plant and cares for it, but will he ever see any fruit? Boy, a writer knows about waiting.

5. Then, if he is diligent, there is finally a pay-off; fruit, the herb, the mature vegetable, or a flower blooms.  For the writer it is winning a contest, being published, having someone say your story touched them, or maybe even a contract.

That's good stuff.