Don't Grow Weary

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."
Galatians 6:9

Farming and gardening is hard work and it takes patience.  We have several fields that we are working in and we are starting to see a harvest.  At the congregation, we have harvested some radishes, arugula and thyme.  We hope to be harvesting spinach and lettuce very soon. Last Sunday we planted a variety of tomatoes and peppers, tomatillas, onions.  It's a good thing to share fancy seeds with the congregation.  (See below.)

Purple Potato

Even so, weeds can get ahead of us.  It takes constant vigilance and perseverance to keep the weeds from taking over.  We have had a slight incursion of cabbage loving varmints at the congregation.  I think that's due to some viewing without shutting the gate.  I was warned about deer at the new site and apparently they made a bed out of the garden there one night.  The property owner stuck some tomato cages near the broccoli to discourage them.  Now,  that I returned, he's beginning to learn what broccoli really looks like.  We have shell peas, head lettuce, and broccoli planted there.  The last weekend of May he and I planted tomatoes (Paragon and I think Rutgers) as well as Amaranth there.  As for the Amaranth, either we will have a nice display of Love Lies a Bleeding or we will also have some Amaranth grain in October.

The last Sunday in May, we planted at our last year's potato site.  We did not like the results of our yellow and russet potatoes, so instead we planted red (like last year) and purple potatoes.  We transplanted some muskmelons.  We also planted edible pod peas, amaranth, rue (to discourage the deer) and cucumbers.

Edible Pod Peas

The bad news in gardening is at my house.  My neighbors love chipmunks and it seems that they must call them by name and feed them on their front yard.   They are munching on almost everything I put in my raised beds in the front yard.  I put the good stuff that my brother sent me there.  So these chipmunks have munched on the Tomatoberries and mini yellow tomatoes he sent me.  My experimental artichokes are all but gone.  They have made short work of the brussel sprouts, eggplants and other things.  They have even found their way to the back yard garden and enjoyed (so far) every tomato plant and pepper that I have planted there, except one.  Woe is me,   but  I will persevere and replant with some cayenne pepper powder and netting.  Also, the good news is that they do not seem to like potatoes, lettuce or spinach.

Our spiritual life is very like persevering in planting.  We must begin by having the Word of God take root in our lives.  We continue by diligently (with the Spirit of the Lord"s help)  rooting out the weeds of sin in our lives.  We must resist the incursions of the enemy of our souls.  While that may not include hot pepper, it does include constructing conscious limits to our activities.  That is barriers that keep spiritual chipmunks (and worse) from the gardens of our lives.  In many ways this is a constant struggle, just as a garden can be.   Like a garden, there will be good fruit if we do not grow weary.

PS:  There are more pictures, but they are going in upside down.