Gardening Makes Me Grateful for the Rain

We decided to plant a garden this year. Okay, two and a half gardens.

The idea of gardening has enthralled me since July 22, 2004. I know the exact date because of this journal entry:

I think when I grow old and retire from my regular career I want to be a gardener. There is something peaceful and relaxing about working with plants and trees, even if it seems outwardly tedious, such as cutting off dead or dying branches. There seems something divine in working to preserve life, in working amidst God's creations as opposed to man's creations . . .

I was eighteen then. 14 years later, and I still have the same feelings (although, it's funny reading this now that I work for a development company, since I am responsible over a portfolio of man's creations).

The idea of the garden this year was propelled by our desire for our kids to understand where food comes from. So we got the community garden plot, and planted it with green beans, parsley, peas, and marigolds on the left side. On the right side, my wife poured the entire seed packets of squash and zucchini. This was the typical weekly harvest of it:

We are still harvesting it today.

If that wasn't enough, I built a garden box out of old heat treated pallets in our back yard. We planted strawberries, more peas, and three types of tomatoes. In my craze, I decided to build a third garden box, but it was too late in the year to plant anything new:

My idea has come a long way in 14 years. But even though my experience in gardening at 18 was minimal, I was right about several things. It does require work, some of it tedious. I made sure that the kids chipped in on the watering and picking (I did the weeding) - activities that had to happen a few times per week, regardless of how many mosquitoes accosted us. After all, cherry tomatoes don't pick themselves - at least while they're still fresh.

There hasn't been much watering lately, though, for one main reason. The weather. Ever since I started gardening, I've been grateful for rainy days. This mentality is a sound departure from many of us who consider the best weather to be sunny, warm, not too humid, with a slight breeze.

The truth of the matter is gardens need both the sunny days and the rainy days. Tomatoes love the heat, but they also require lots of water. Without one or the other, there will be no fruit. 

We all have what we consider sunny days and rainy days in our lives. The trick is to be grateful for their different benefits. While the rain may feel cold and uncomfortable as it drips off our hair and down our face, while we may run from the car to the house to get out of it, that same rain is revitalizing the landscape, allowing flowers to bloom and fruit to grow. Without the work, and/or the rain, we do not get to enjoy moments like this, wherein a four-year-old boy son creates his own bouquet from clippings in the garden: