{"id":4872,"date":"2019-07-11T05:13:36","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T11:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/?p=4872"},"modified":"2019-07-11T20:07:38","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T02:07:38","slug":"what-im-learning-from-my-suburban-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/what-im-learning-from-my-suburban-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"What I’m learning from my suburban garden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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\u00a0I grew up in the\u00a0\u00a0Sierra-Nevada\u00a0mountains, with\u00a0snow deep and\u00a0trees thick\u00a0to blanket the ground.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0And I\u00a0lived part of my life in the Nevada desert\u00a0, with crumbly granite rock and\u00a0prickly scrub bushes on the landscape.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The decade in the Wyoming mountains was amazing. Then I moved to the badlands of desert-plains.<\/div>\n

And now, finally, I\u2019m in a Denver suburb with curbs and sidewalk, sprinkler tat-tat-tatting in the evening hours.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Never have I lived on, or near a farm. Farms have been strictly the stuff of books or movies, or a place to drive by and you make comments about the neat\u00a0rows or fancy tractors. Call me\u00a0strange, but they\u00a0are romantic in a way, even as\u00a0I push my cart down the fruit aisle.<\/div>\n
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I read writers like\u00a0Ann Voskamp<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jennifer Dukes Lee<\/a>\u00a0who write about life on the farm and I\u2019m completely enthralled by the concept of the miracle of\u00a0soil, sun and seed.<\/strong>\u00a0And LL Barkat\u2019s\u00a0God in the Yard<\/a><\/em>\u00a0lovingly strokes the idea of things that grow.<\/div>\n
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Adam worked the soil. As did Abel. and a steady line of mankind since. My grandfather planted strawberries and apples, pumpkins and squash, onions and peas.\u00a0 My mother loved flowers and tomatoes.\u00a0My sister grows things and my brother too.<\/div>\n
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Why not me?<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Tomatoes\"<\/a>
Photo by stefano carella on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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I bought\u00a0a bulk\u00a0variety of 25 different\u00a0seed packs\u00a0from\u00a0Seeds of Change<\/a>. The fronts of the packages were full of pictorial promise \u2014 perfect vegetables and\u00a0flowers bursting with color.\u00a0The instructions on the back were replete\u00a0with recommended soil temperatures, thinning techniques and watering needs.\u00a0This is harder than it looks.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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(Rabbit trail: One of the seed packets in the bunch was for\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIranian\u00a0tobacco.\u00a0\u201d\u00a0\u00a0My family still laughs at the thought of me growing the stuff. Why not?\u00a0The package said\u00a0it grows \u201cup to four feet with broad leaves and red flowers.\u201d Frankly, it sounds\u00a0decorative and even\u00a0a little daring.\u00a0I\u2019ll grow the plants right next to the fence, so the\u00a0bored and barking\u00a0dog next door can\u00a0\u00a0\u201cenjoy the fruits.\u201c\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Maybe,\u00a0just for fun\u00a0, I\u00a0can be called\u00a0an evil\u00a0tobacco farmer by\u00a0some\u00a0lunatic fringe. \u00a0I don\u2019t know what I\u2019ll do with the crop. Maybe I can get a subsidy not to grow it?)<\/div>\n
I bought\u00a0a shovel, some dirt and a plastic flat with little containers of dirt. And four months ago, under the sunny window in the kitchen, right next to the coffee maker, I dropped three seeds into each starter pod. I watered\u00a0and prayed \u2014 like Cain, my grandfather and every generations in between did.<\/div>\n
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And soon enough,\u00a0one by one, they popped through the soil, bursting into the morning light\u00a0streaming through the window.\u00a0 Chives, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and a host of flowers are certainly just a few weeks away.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
After Mother\u2019s Day,\u00a0I moved most of the seedlings to\u00a0the soil outside, already\u00a0tilled and fertilized,\u00a0moist from two days of\u00a0rain, patiently\u00a0waiting to receive. It\u2019s like putting your child on a school bus for the first time.<\/div>\n
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The questions are rampant: Will they make it through the night? Will a bird pull their tender shoot out of the ground? Is the soil right? Will it be too cold? Am I a really a man for enjoying all this?<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
And through this process, I\u2019m learning about life again.\u00a0Winter taught me a few things. It taught me that there is a spring, and a summer. And\u00a0there will be a time of harvest\u00a0as I\u00a0find love and restoration, through the\u00a0soil, sun and seed<\/strong>.
\nAnd\u00a0once again,\u00a0I pray.\u00a0\u201cGive me the faith of a farmer<\/em><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And through this process, I\u2019m learning about life again.\u00a0Winter taught me a few things. It taught me that there is a spring and a summer. And\u00a0there will be a time of harvest\u00a0as I\u00a0find love and restoration, through the\u00a0soil, sun, and seed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat I'm learning from my suburban garden<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"And through this process, I\u2019m learning about life again.\u00a0Winter taught me a few things. It taught me that there is a spring and a summer. 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