Gardening with Ash over the past couple of months has felt like reading a good summer book. And I do not care what anyone says, eating corn you grew in your backyard for Sunday dinner is a whole flex. Of course, we have made a ton of mistakes, and some of the transplants have succumbed to our agricultural ignorance. But for everything we have learned, we have a good head start for next year. I hope this is one of Ash’s core memories, growing up eating fruit and vegetables from the little garden in his backyard. The one that started with his Granny bringing him a tomato plant in a pot when he was three years old, and that blossoms into something that gives him a lifelong harvest. It has for me!
For one, gardening has shown me how life thrives in balance. Sun, rain, and compost nutrients are all good, necessary things for a garden, but they can also literally destroy it if overdone and not given in balance.
My favorite vegetable venture this year has been growing corn—learning how pollen from the tassel is carried by the wind down to the silks, and each individual silk requires this phenomenon to bear a single kernel of corn. Utterly a-maizing! I was so outdone when I saw those silks sprouting—what?! My dad found it amusing that I found such fascination in growing corn—-he was not as blown away as I was. He grew up surrounded by acres of such happenings, cultivating it as a way of living, so it was just corn to him. And somewhere between the corn and zucchini plants, I laughed because I felt I had learned more about God and His enthusiasm with the concept of insemination. We had so many budding zucchini flowers but no zucchini, only for me to find out that we had a bunch of (thin-stemmed) male flowers, not the thick-stemmed fruit-bearing female flowers. The male flowers would have to pollinate the female flowers for the zucchini to form. After the male flower’s task is accomplished, it falls off the stem and dies. God be funny too.
The kicker is that amid all this beautiful vegetative life trying to form, pests diligently work to destroy it all. Until now, I had no problem or thought about those little white butterflies that flutter around the yard; now, I loathe them for feeding on my cabbages! I also loathe flea beetles, Japanese beetles, earwigs, and slugs! Our goal is to keep our garden organic, so keeping the pests away has been challenging. But that is just another thing that gardening reminded me about life–pests will suck the life out of you if you let them.
The most delightful thing about gardening is the inconspicuous, day-to-day growth. It is unexplainable—you are watching something grow, though you do not see the growth until you see it. How lovely the silence of growing things and another reminder about little progress adding up to big results.
Gardening has taught me the importance of paying attention and looking closer. One morning, I stood back looking at the tomato plants, which were clearly thriving. I walked closer and hovered over them intently, and that is when I saw the tiny shotgun holes in a few of the leaves. That is when I learned about flea beetles.
Happiness for me is journeying through a good book, page by page, sometimes into the wee hours of the night, devouring words to unfold a story that lingers with me even for days after I’ve read the last word. Happiness is now also growing food—pruning away unhealthy leaves, warding off pests, praying for the rain, and then the sunshine, and then the rain again, trying to find balance. Because that is what tending to this little garden has shown me—life thrives in balance.
And does food taste better that you’ve grown yourself? Yes, it absolutely does!
What about you, do you garden? If so, what has it taught you?
And don’t forget to subscribe to Asher’s Youtube channel—Little Garden, Chef Asher.
