I have had three somewhat successful vegetable gardens in my lifetime. The first one was while I was a seminary student in Ft. Worth, Texas. I had two large plots of plowed up ground in the backyard of the house we were renting. The second was when I was the pastor of my first church, about ten miles outside of the community of Crawford, Texas. It, too, was while I was a student in seminary. And the third was while I was pastoring a small country church in Neches, Texas. I had graduated from seminary, but this “farming stuff” was still new to me.
Now, I do not have what is called, “a green thumb”, but we were able to plant and grow a few vegetables, among these were tomatoes, lettuce, squash, some potatoes, and a few skinny carrots! I even tried my hand at growing corn while I was at Crawford. However, two rows of corn weren’t quite enough to produce any corn on the cob worth looking at! The few that I did harvest looked like someone had already eaten most of the kernels off the cob! How was I to know that corn took a lot of acres of planting? This novice had never grown corn before! Oh, well, it was fun trying to produce something from mother nature that we could eat.
But do you know what? This gardening business is hard! You don’t just go and throw some seeds on the ground and expect a harvest, you have to first plow and cultivate the ground. Then when your soil is nice and pliable, you have to make some furrows in which to plant your seeds. Then you have to water it almost daily, and, in order to protect your plants, you have to sprinkle insecticide on them as they grow so you can keep the bugs and beetles and worms away that are looking for a free meal! This, too, is cultivation. And it is a daily event.
