Some will sow . . .

. . . some will water, some will weed, some will stake, but it is God that gives the increase. That is my own paraphrase from 1 Corinthians chapter 3. God used Paul to give us some wonderful word pictures, and this is one of my favorites.

This year, we discussed these lessons as we did, indeed, sow our seeds - literally. As a part of our science lessons early this spring, we started our own bedding plants for the first time.




Not only did we plant the seeds in good, healthy soil, we kept them moist until they sprouted. And then we watched over them, making sure they received enough light (but not too much), and enough water (but not too much).

We also celebrated when we measured their growth. All the while, we were amazed and astonished at what a wonderful God we serve, Who can take a tiny speck of a seed and bring life up out of the ground.



It was an exciting day when we were able to transplant pepper plants, and tomato plants, and watermelons, zucchini, cantelopes, sunflowers, sweet william and alyssum into our gardens.




And then we were able to plant the rest of our seeds - the ones that prefer being sown directly into the garden bed, like green beans and cucumbers. Everyone pitched in and worked together.



Mom hoed the trench and then the rows were marked with the twine-and-stick method. It's amazing how we lose track of where we planted what, so this is an essential step in the process. The kiddos then planted the seed. We have a tried and true method for spacing. It's called the heel-toe-heel method. You drop a seed at the beginning of the row, place your heel just in front of it, drop a seed at your toe, place the heel of your other foot in front of that one, drop another seed, etc, etc, etc.


We had some cool days leading up to our regular planting season, so as soon as it warmed up, we were out in the garden. But, boy did it warm up! I think it went from 50 degrees one day, to 90 the next! It was quite a shock to our systems. But Bekah was happy to be our water girl, offering a refreshing drink to anyone showing a drop of sweat on their brow. Or, at least, anyone who had not yet had a drink in the last 5 minutes. She took her job VERY seriously!



I had not realized until I started this post, that I don't have a photo of our entire young garden yet. I'll have to do something about that, as I'm hoping and praying that our severe weather and storms are now over, and I expect we'll be out and about much more this coming week. So, be watching for garden updates and pictures.