A couple of weeks ago it was Earth Day and reported on all manner of media people were planting trees to commemorate the occasion. I felt bad. We live in a condominium community and we are not allowed to plant anything without approval of our board. We have a landscape plan and a list of acceptable trees and shrubs, but that is only for the maintenance people to use.
We have a beautiful pond in our back yard and several of the neighbors have planted gardens around it without board permission I am told. The gardens are so beautiful until the neighbor moves on and then it becomes a tangled mess of flowers and shrubs gone wild and weeds laughingly taking over the once well groomed garden.
I woke up this morning and gazed at the neglected garden off my deck and saw a neighbor pulling weeds. “Are you going to plant some flowers?” I asked. “No,” he said, “I just don’t like the weeds and we are having company today.” My heart drooped and I walked back into the house.
Hmmmm….I thought. Should I? Yes, why not, others do it. Okay, let’s do it! And thus began my journey to plant a garden. I searched the internet for suitable annuals that would do well in the sun in poor soil. I printed off my list and went next door to confer with my neighbor to see what she might like to see in my garden. Then off to the nursery to purchase my precious few plants.
Oh, that nursery was so tempting. I could have bought dozens and dozens of beautiful flowering plants for my garden. My R bought a trowel to dig the holes for me. He is so good to me. When we counted 61 plants in our cart it occurred to me we had to get down on our hands and knees and dig holes and plant them! Suddenly, I wasn’t ready to buy any more. So we paid the piper and brought our blooming treasures home.
It wasn’t as hard as we expected, but it was work and it was exhausting. We rested after each dozen we planted, sat down, had a glass of ice tea, and rested our aching backs. We should have bought knee pads along with that trowel. And how I managed to get dirt in my hair is beyond me.
After two hours, a gallon of ice tea, and a really aching back we were finished and the new garden was properly watered and ready to grow into a beautiful flowering Eden for us. I haven’t done anything like this since I was in my thirties and it felt oh, so good! So this is what it means to take care of God’s creation, I thought. Today was my Earth Day and I planted a garden. I feel wonderful!