The One About Gardening

Worms
...are the cause of me being on here!  I was chatting with David about blogs and worms on the Facebook (it was more interesting than it sounds - you had to be there), and replied to a question he had asked. Unfortunately the reply got delayed in cyberspace by a minute or two, and it looked like I had replied 'yes' to an entirely different question about me actually writing blogs!! So now it's payback on worms.

Worms if I am honest are slimy and a bit ugly,  but the work they do is incredible. They turn rubbish and waste back into something good in the soil, which then helps plants to grow and fruit. So I want to defend the humble worm (and use them to watch people scream when you hold one too close). Worms are not miserable! Like people! Some appear a bit ugly on the outside - the way they look, the way they speak, their behaviour... But if you press past the differences, the things that make you squirm, feel uncomfortable, or even a little scared, you realise that like real worms, they are a much greater blessing than you ever thought possible.

Weeds
I've been helping a friend with her allotment - this year was the first it had been planted on. The soil is clayey and stony, a pain to dig. I did manage to plant some potatoes and some grew, but not as many as if the soil had been tended for years, was nicely broken down, and had had some of the stones taken out. Would love a short cut! Which is where weeds come in. Even weeds are good on the allotment - their roots can help to break up the soil and displace stones to the surface. Of course, once you have produce in the ground they are a pain and hinder growth, but when they are pulled up and composted, growth is helped.  You do need to do it early though, weeds are easier to pull up when just starting to grow. After a while they become established, their roots get deeper and bigger, and hands are not enough, a fork is needed. And if they are left too long, they can seed, causing more and more weeds to develop.

So I think weeds, like worms can be like us. Sometimes people we regard as weeds - out of place, unattractive - are used by God to break up things in our lives, to make us ready to bear fruit, to sift the stones. Sometimes problems or sin in our lives can be like weeds - the earlier they are identified and uprooted the easier. Conversely if it isn't dealt with early, more and more problems are created.

Tomatoes
Was thinking about David's tomato plants, they really were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They even tried a kamikaze move off the window sill to escape, and now they have been transported to the depths of the brown recycling bin! They didn't really produce flowers, never mind fruit. They were in a room which got too hot, in pots which dried out and were too small for their roots, and didn't have the right things around them in terms of big enough sticks to hold them up, and they didn't have the sideshoots removed. Although the plants were watered, and fed, this really didn't help them much, because they needed more than that to grow properly, and to fruit.

Reckon we can go and be fed, and watered, but not really grow because other things are needed. We can be doing things which just aren't what God wants us to do (in the wrong place – in the tomato's case the conservatory being slowly baked when the sun shone, rather than outside) and so growth and fruiting is hampered or stopped. Small pots stopped the roots developing properly.

It's much easier to keep things the same, not to step out into the larger pot, but this constricts our roots and  growth. The roots become trapped in the pot, and start to strangle the food supply to the plant, and the growth gets less and less. Change is always a challenge. Even when we get planted into the bigger pot, like a  plant we can struggle for a little whilst the roots fill the larger space. But if we refuse to be in the right place, if we refuse the change, we risk ending up fruitless.

Are you in the right place, are you scared of worms, annoyed with weeds? Is God calling you to change?

In the beginning we were placed in a garden. Let's do what it takes to work together to bear fruit!