The Southern Garden

I have just come in from watering my garden. It is a delight to live somewhere where I already have summer squash producing, tomatoes blooming, and corn up almost a foot high. For those of you who live in the north, you may be quite jealous.

Having grown up in the northwest, I am most familiar with the issues of the northern gardener. Their foremost problem would be the sometimes year-round frost. At all times of the year it seems, one must keep a weather eye for that awful plant killer. It is frustrating to have your garden finally up and growing, only to come out one morning and find it all frozen and soon to be black. To those northern folks who hear that I already have a garden almost ready to produce, well the south must sound like the promise land. How wonderful to not have to deal  with frost, they think.

Well, my northern friends, do not be so quick to judge. We have a few problems of our own around here.

When God told Adam that man would toil to make the ground produce, He wasn't kidding. We here in the southern part of the country may not have the frost to deal with, but we have our own unique problems. You see, because of the lack of frost, we deal with some of the most super-resistant, large, hungry, bugs I have ever had the misfortune of coming across. Having grown up in another part of the country, this northern girl had never met southern bugs. I can't say as it has been a pleasure to get to know them. We are not on good terms. Just as the northern gardener hates the frost with a passion, so do we southern gardeners our bugs.

This time of year, when the summer squash is just starting to produce, our bane is the Squash Bug. My northern friends my not believe it, but around here we have to struggle to get our summer squash plants to produce. In small towns in the northwest we have a joke, "You know you are in a small town when you only reason you lock your car doors at church, is to keep your neighbors from filling it up with squash." I can't say as we have the same problem here. You see, these friendly little bugs favorite food is the inside of the stem of my squash plants. They burrow right in and make themselves at home. Of course the plant isn't so happy about it, and eventually, as the bugs eat they way through, the plant dies from root separation. It is most disheartening to watch your big beautiful plants slowly die, knowing there is nothing you can do about it. Once the bugs get started, the plant cannot be saved (or at least I haven't been able to do so).

Now, that is not to say that gardening here is all bad. Indeed, I have really enjoyed the early growing season, and the verity of things you can plant. It's been fun to try out new plants that would never grow up north. The one thing I can say though, is as I garden, be it north or south, I am always reminded of how truly small I am. When I am outside tending my plants, watching the seeds sprout and grow, I never cease to be amazed. I plant the little seeds, but that is all I do. After they are in the ground all I can do is stand back and watch my great God make them grow. I am completely incapable of doing anything other than watch. I can give them water, but only God can provide the life to make them grow, and the sun to help them do it. It reminds me of Psalms 19, which says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork." This is true of our whole world. From the heavens to the tiniest seeds, they all shout out the glory of God, and how great He is. I am so incapable, I cannot even making a little seed grow. Being in my garden reminds me how awesome my God truly is. 


So, north or south, bugs or frost, for me gardening is a blessing. It reminds me of how blessed I am. I may be a northern girl transplanted to the south, but no matter where I go, I serve the same great God. I'm so glad I have the continuity in my life. 


Hope you have enjoyed my take on southern gardening. It's been fun! And don't forget, Y'all Come Back...