{"id":39,"date":"2013-02-12T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.195.124.95\/~redletu4\/prepping-the-soil\/"},"modified":"2013-02-12T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T13:30:00","slug":"prepping-the-soil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/prepping-the-soil\/","title":{"rendered":"Prepping the soil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>\n\n\n\n
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\"Real<\/a><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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It only took a few unplanned 50-degree days and my thoughts are now turning to my urban \u201cfarm.\u201d Last year, it was a 4\u00d74 square plot of land that held 16 different kinds of\u00a0vegetables. The onions, tomatoes, peppers, and the lettuce did especially well. But the beans died on the vine and the carrots were too narrowly planted.<\/p>\n

This year, I\u2019m \u201cdoubling the farm\u201d and will have an 8\u00d78 plot.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got the framing built and the seeds bought. But before anything else, I need to think about the soil. It has to have the right mix, the right nutrients. In the past,\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0been guilty of just dropped seeds in regular old topsoil, only to see the little plants die or never seed.<\/p>\n

To tell the truth,\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0never really been good about prepping the soil in anything<\/b>. I\u2019ve rushed into just about\u00a0everything\u00a0in life, wanting to relish in the thrills and joys of the journey. But because I\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0 plan, all I ended up with were withered flowers and wilted plants. I\u2019ve lost friends, a marriage, relationships and even my own soul for a while because I was so concerned about the fruit and not the soil.<\/p>\n

In this life, we are all really\u00a0fellow farmers, working toward producing good crops. We might not be in the fields, but we are in the factories and office buildings, retail stores and homes, putting out a product.\u00a0Metaphorically, none of us wants bad fruit. Nobody wants the bad produce of a harvest gone wrong.<\/i><\/p>\n

I have spent a lifetime thinking about character, working on disciplining my thoughts and trying to make the right choices, but still, I don\u2019t always turn out the best harvest. In fact, many of my best efforts are just rotten. I had the best seeds and worst soil<\/b><\/p>\n

My friend Tim\u00a0isn\u2019t a farmer, but he\u2019s had his share of both good and bad harvests in his life. He\u2019s honest about his failures, and humble about his victories.<\/p>\n

\u2018I have found the only way to produce a good crop is to have fertile soil,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he said, \u201cand the only way to get that is to constantly turn over the soil and add lots of manure.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Last year I started a compost pile. With kitchen scraps, lawn trimmings, egg shells, and coffee grounds all jumbled together and now it\u2019s a beautiful mound of soil, \u00a0dark brown and full of nutrients. All the leftovers \u2014 the things I thought\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0amount to anything are part of that collection. And out of that, will come a rich harvest. Who would have thought?<\/p>\n

So, maybe next time, when my life gets turned over, I\u2019ll remember the coming fruit. Maybe next time when someone shovels a smelly load into my life, I\u2019ll thank them for helping me out with the final product.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Fertile soil. It\u2019s not as easy as I thought.<\/p>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/div>\n
Please, share with a friend if you feel moved.
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It only took a few unplanned 50-degree days and my thoughts are now turning to my urban \u201cfarm.\u201d Last year, it was a 4\u00d74 square plot of land that held 16 different kinds of\u00a0vegetables. The onions, tomatoes, peppers, and the lettuce did especially well. But the beans died on the vine and the carrots were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,203,380,587,724,769,816,889],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-compost","category-degree-day","category-harvest","category-nutrient","category-retail","category-seed","category-soil","category-thought"],"yoast_head":"\nPrepping the soil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It only took a few unplanned 50-degree days and my thoughts are now turning to my urban "farm." 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