Feed Troughs For My Birthday!

Chapter 1
It is more than a year since my last post.  My husband's health and mine, has kept us pretty busy going to doctors and learning about the medicines we take.  What actually can cause you more difficulty than help you get well, and all that necessary knowledge stuff.  It seems that society has turned our whole world into a big well of health related waters, in which I feel like I am drowning.  And it is bringing our age related issue to the front and center of everything in our lives.  Such is the  reality of getting older I suppose. This isn't exactly  how I wanted to open this blog, but it does lead into what being in the Garden has meant to me this year. Because this year my garden got sick. And now it is getting old.

Fall weather is approaching, with nippy evenings and fairly cold nights.  It is warning me that I have only a little time to get the things that are important to me, to save them from freezing, into the Greenhouse.
My Grandson prefers to call it the White House, because when I put on new plastic, it is white, not green. As a little fellow, he didn't understand the concept of keeping the plants alive as being "green." A word whose concept has really changed in the last 20 years.  Now, there is so much talk about "keeping the planet green," a concept which often seems to eliminate God in the process altogether. I fear for my grandchildren and their concept of God, of his control of this world, and his directives about a real garden.  I cannot think of my garden without being reminded of those concepts, and I fear they may never know of them.



The greenhouse in the background
"WhiteHouse"

But this summer, I had the greatest opportunity to spend time with my oldest Grandson in the garden, and share with him a little about what God and Garden mean to me.

The plan for my garden had become overwhelming, because my health has begun to push me into perpetual "slow" mode. After several falls, and rehab, my back issues made it difficult to move things around the way I once could. It's sort of the total motivation for including elevated beds into my garden plan in the first place.  I began with a dream of how it could look, after sitting and pondering the amount of space I had, for hours sometime. And after drawing up sketches of unfinished ideas, I actually thought most of it was a pipe-dream. So I wouldn't finish the sketches. I couldn't imagine how it could all come to pass.

At this moment, I am profoundly and deeply thankful to the Father for taking the desires of my heart, which I could scarcely get my own head around, and making them a reality.  But it required some help. Human hands, and a good strong back.  It's just like God to provide for the need, though. It's one of the ways I know there is a God.  He takes the things hidden deep within your heart and blesses them. In fact, I often wonder if the Holy Spirit isn't the author of them - the good dreams of being prosperous in some way. Of challenging us to plant something which we hope will grow.  Whether it will be an actual plant, or just a vision - a dream of planting the seed to a business or adventure, or any other way that the metaphor can relate to life. Jesus used the seed planting stories to describe so many life issues, and he always encouraged us to put faith into the planting of any seed, so that faith itself becomes what God uses to bless the planting of it.

Before I wax too deep, and mar the floor, let me return to my story. My husband and I knew this year as the winter broke into spring, that we needed some help to just get dirt into the beds I had prepared the year before.  He had bought me most of the tools I needed to make my raised beds a reality. And he did that on faith in my dream, never really knowing how I could use the crazy tools I wanted to buy.


We were in the local feed and hardware store one day, and I saw large oval troughs intended to provide a sturdy long lasting, element resisting means of feeding cattle and horses.  They were black and made of  some kind of plastic.  Not children's toy pool's plastic, but rather, the stuff that never wears out, and when it's way past it's use, you can't destroy it.  The kind which, once upon a time, faded from bright joyful colors to sad worn grays; so sad that your children didn't even want to touch those toys anymore...evidenced by the way the kids tossed them into a corner of the yard, where they sat in the children's junk yard until you figured how to haul them away. Haul them, feeling guilty that they would never break down in the land fill. That kind of plastic.  But somehow, I figured these large black troughs actually provided a wonderful use for such plastics once recycled, and it was not going to fade in color at all. I liked that about them.

Not so pretty yet.

These troughs came in a variety of sizes, some as large as about 5x4 feet long and wide,  and over 2 feet deep. Some looked like they were the size to feed baby goats and other small animals.  But to me, they looked like instant raised bed gardens.  Deep ones, like you might could grow potatoes in. Checking to see if they had drain holes, which, I assumed they must have, were to clean out old water,  and I was relieved to find them, and to think I didn't have to drill into that dense plastic, to make them work.  But how would I ever get enough dirt to fill even one of them?  That would be costly. Maybe I could slowly make composted dirt over time, but that would take a couple of years to be viable soil.  So I walked away from these magic instant solutions just dreaming of how I might use them. How I could make my gardens gain space, by implementing the organization fact that I swear by. "Never see the space you have as just floor space, always keep looking up." In other words, you gain space as you see your space as 3 dimensional.

  For example, a 10 x 10 plot of ground space doubles, and then some, as you make it into a mound of dirt rather than a flat square of dirt. Many plants also appreciate the drainage factor and ability to get extra sun to all of it's leaves if you plant on a hill.  My grandfather preferred to plant his garden on a hill for the many advantages it provided, not to mention  that it made themselves very strong to climb that hill, to be able to plant into it.  But I dreamed of something more small scale than my grandparents' gardens. Something to make the most use of my limited back yard square footage.

2 black bins, upside down, and one filled with water bottles for drainage, waiting for me to wait on God....

3 areas I wanted  to use for planting, could become much more useful, if they became large mounds.  And since it is a principle employed in many botanical, or decorative city gardens, through which I love to stroll, I knew how professionals and trained horticulturists took advantage of this bit of info. I had even traveled to Georgia to the Gardens of Helen to take pictures of such gardens, where dirt piled up and banks walled up became masses of flowers, which enhance the beauty of this little tourist town.  I had spent several days walking the streets, taking picture after picture of how they used the land. I knew I was only a learner, but the wheels turned in my imagination, every time I visited these compact and high impact gardens.

So with a head full of possibilities, I was still in dreaming stage. While I  was watching the sunlight move through my garden during the day, to know if I could grow sun loving flowers, and also a few veggies I thought about a plant plan.  As I read the messages on the plant stakes in garden sections of our local stores, I realized that many living things, ask only for about 6 hours of full sun.  Some actually preferred partial sun, or a max of 4 hours of light.  I already had a number of shade lovers, which needed to be planted in the ground, and as I took pictures of my own garden, a light plan began to form.  The garden itself began to show me where things had to be planted.  And I discovered that my dream could become a reality, if I only had tons more dirt. Literally, tons. But to hold up that dirt, there had to be walls, for even the feeding troughs were only a fraction of the size I needed to make the beds work.  I also needed rock and interlocking wall block.

Now as I dreamed, I realized how much money, Helen had put into their gardens.  Even dirt  would be hundreds of dollars.  Now the 2 $65.00 troughs which I initially thought would be my greatest expense, seemed minimal as I added it up.  When I shared my vision with my husband, he caught the dream, much to my surprise.  So on my birthday, I was given two of the largest feed troughs, and two of the smaller ones.  A round one and an oval one.  Wow! Now it seemed that making the raised mounds was something I had to do, not just dream of.  My husband, however said, his dream was to use one of the smaller troughs as a tiny pond with a bubbler or fountain, which left me exactly 3 to form a plan around. 

The more he saw me trying to figure out the least expensive way to produce dirt from compost, and the compost piles shrank as they decayed, making the process very slow, he insisted I buy some packaged dirt. So after we brought home 10 or more of the largest bags they sell, when on sale, - several times - without making a dent in the plan, we realized that the expense was not reasonable.  I literally ended the year with my black bins turned upside down. Even the first raised bed I built from reclaimed lumber and flashing, needed new dirt to refill it next year for planting, before I could even think of filling the troughs, much less building mounds. 

First raised bed from Recycled lumber and flashing

Jimmy couldn't imagine what I was dreaming. What husband can get into our minds?  And no amount of trying to explain allowed him to imagine the huge amount of dirt and rock I needed. All I could do was pray: "God you seem to be the author of my imaginings, so I am praying for dirt."  I really want it to be free, like the wood you gave us for the outdoor furniture or the mulch you provided for the pathways. I will know you are in it, if it's free".  But free dirt was not in God's plan.

I waited and waited on free dirt.  We researched buying dirt from landscape providers, and determined how much our old truck could haul in one load.  We tried to estimate how many loads it would take to fill the mounds up to the level I desired. And then I broke the news to my anxious spouse, that before I could buy dirt, I had a lot of foundation work to do. It required rock and block, on which I also didn't want to spend a fortune.

I set my anchor on verses like this one which just happens to be on the BibleGateway site this morning as I write this.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Psalm 27:14 NIV

 I waited and  prayed, far longer than my husband was willing. But when I started showing him the hundreds of dollars it would take to just move forward and buy stuff, and explained that my guilt for putting other needs aside for a mere dream, seemed too frivolous for me, he allowed me to just dream for a bit. I was willing to wait for God's plan to play out, so Jimmy relinquished, although he continued to want me to just go buy the dirt and pile it up.  I had visions of rain washing dirt down our driveway for years to come, like money cast upon running waters, slowly floating away. 

But the dirt floating away vision made me think of the scripture, which says cast your bread upon the waters, and after many days it will return to you.

vs 1  Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. From the classic 11th Chapter of Ecclesiastes, which also speaks of planting seed:

vs.6  In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

As I thought of that verse, I realized that sometimes we must risk practical things for yield. It seems to make no sense to throw bread on water and expect if it's carried downstream that you will own it once more, after a time. What value? I had pondered that verse before, and I knew it meant to place your trust for sustenance upon the Lord, who was paralleled symbolically by water.  Water being the life's blood of all life, even in the eyes of the earliest primitive men, long before Ecclesiastes.  Water also symbolized power, and life cycles, the simple needs of life, and an ever-moving entitiy, able to be present in 3 forms. So God dealt with my heart. Maybe it was not frivolous to cast money into this endeavor, risking it on something as practical as dirt, if planting into it could provide a yield. And even if I didn't know exactly how good the yield, or the kind of yield, it seemed that dirt would be good for years to come.  A foundation for many more gardens over the years. A preparation for a good future garden.

I suddenly saw God's plan differently.  And understood these verses in a way I never would have otherwise.  But I never even came close to imagining the Summer story that was about to unfold, because of a whole lot of dirt!  I could write a book on  what happened in my garden this year,  and I just might. Starting with this chapter of how I got feed troughs for my birthday and soon was contemplating investing in Dirt.

I am so blessed to have lived the story. I praise God for one glorious summer and a dream to build a garden.  Thank you precious Lord.