One of the hardest tasks for home gardeners and Christians in the Church is this: Pruning. There’s something that seems awfully cruel about it. Painful to witness and worse to perform because our sympathetic hearts want to preserve what little bits of life and hope remain, even if the reality is that we must prune. Equally important are […]
A second important task of spring clean-up is removal of dead leaves and other debris. Holding onto what is dead interferes with new life! So I carefully remove the dead leaves and other debris from around plants that died back over the winter (see before picture of yellow flag iris at right). Why? Well, there are […]
There’s always lots of clean-up of the yard to do in the spring. Digging the early weeds to keep them from spreading Removal of dead leaves and other debris Pruning things before they leaf out too much All of them have to do with death and new life. If you stop and think about it, […]
One of the first things I do every spring is to shovel the snow piles down to a meltable level on the parkway between the sidewalk and the street. I want to see green grass as soon as possible. Of course, that doesn’t happen all by itself. It needs a little help. Call me a […]
I know it’s not the same for people in other areas of the world, but here in Chicagoland, Easter coincides with springtime. What New Year’s Day does for some people is what spring does for me. I dream big. My hopes are sky high. My goals are within reach. My vision seems endless and my […]
Good thing February is the shortest month on the calendar. In the Midwest, it ranks as many people’s least favorite month and quite frankly, if it weren’t for Valentine’s Day and my birthday, I’d probably like to do a Rip Van Winkle and sleep the whole month away. But there are valuable things I can do […]
I was thinking this morning, as I was praying about my day and asking God to order it in a way that pleases Him, that it can be an act of worship to do gardening. Actually everything can be an act of worship if you’re doing it as unto the Lord. Doing laundry for Jesus […]
I am not a fan of winter, especially this one. It’s been downright frigid and even on my bravest day of walking the dogs, I’m still not interested in frostbite or getting chilled to the bone. How the cold finds my bones when I’m this bundled up puzzles me exceedingly. The poor dogs are prancing […]
Winter storm “Hercules” may be dumping 15 inches of snow outside, but look what’s going on inside. The very short day lengths, cooler temperatures, and indoor plant lights make gardening possible and some plants actually prefer it. These “winter buddies” are budding now and will blossom shortly. Many orchids bloom in the winter, among the […]
It’s been a while since I wrote a gardening post. My excuse? Aside from being busy writing other posts, the truth is: I’ve been doing battle with critters, both animals and insects. I knew I’d had enough when the deer was standing on my front porch eating a pot of tulips. I thought I was […]
