Enemies- Part 1: Groundhog

This past Wednesday I was repairing breaches in the garden fence.  On Thursday I took steps to make it pretty.  Robert Frost wrote,  “good fences make good neighbors.”  He was not, however, referring to our congregational neighbors –the groundhog family.

Noonan, Linda. groundhog1.jpg. July 11, 2005.
Pics4Learning. 12 Jul 2012
 http://pics.tech4learning.com

Recently I heard how the cute little groundhog runs around, playing with the squirrels on the property.  I suppose he is cute, but whenever we see each other he runs for his hole under our porch.  The first time he dined at Gan Am Messiah, he devoured chard, perpetual spinach, and lettuce.  So the fence went up.  He made some holes under and through the fence,  eating cabbage, additional helpings of chard, garnished with the tips of budding tomato plants.  I put asphalt around the fence to hold it down

A lover of the beauty of gardens decided that the asphalt looked ugly.  Indeed it did.  Through no fault of his own, he was ignorant of our ravenous neighbor.  In the meantime, the groundhog found another way into the garden.  He had a second helping of cabbage.

Cabbage taken 7-11-12 -
Groundhog returned for thirds at night.

On Wednesday I inspected the garden and discovered additional holes in the fence.  One near a parking lot and the others were renewed where the asphalt had been.  I don’t blame the lover of groundhog cuteness or the lover of beauty.  Both persons are not wrong, but I would like us to grow crops and eat them too.  So I returned the asphalt to the area of groundhog holes.  I came back on Thursday and camouphaged the asphalt with soil, planting young marigolds in the soil.

I had said that I would take additional measures and I did.  Is this the end of the groundhog problem?  No,  it pushed in bottom gate and made a space.  It ate the other half of the cabbage.  I found a way to lock the gates shut.  Is that the end of the groundhog problem?  We'll see.

One remaining pepper in bed-
destroyed the night of 7-12-12

Let us be warned that the same sorts of things happen with our spiritual life.  Our spiritual enemy is not a cute little groundhog, in fact we have many spiritual enemies.  Specifically this includes the world, the flesh, and the devil.   As it is written in 1 John 2:15-16 "¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world."   Also see Ephesians 6: 11-12,   " ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. "

Other part of pepper be with dill, basil and thyme

These enemies are much more powerful than a little groundhog and even more persistant.  Don't despair because as "A Mighty Fortress is our God" says of the enemy,  "one little word shall fell him."  Despite our inadequecies, that Word (or logos) is Yeshua/Jesus.  The success of the garden and our own ultimate success have something to do with how we live our lives, yes.  There is something about active faith, yes.  Yet ultimately sucess is based on what Yeshua/Jesus has done.

Next Week:  Part 2 of Garden Enemies
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Chard, Perpetual Spinach, Beet Greens and Basil.

Next week there will be no distribution of veggies.  I will be away.