INSTRUCTIONS

Many I know are planting already.

Plan to plant lettuce and spinach seeds outside

and tomato and delphenium seeds inside this weekend.

Instructions

Much of what one knows about gardening

has been passed down through generations

of gardeners before

to those who come after.

These “oldies but goodies” know the best dirt -

not gossip, but the best secrets about earth:

how to enrich the soil,

how to reduce toil.

How to make compost

so your garden will boast.

Recycled leaves make the best organic matter

if manure is not available from your farming neighbors.

Egg shells add calcium to the garden's soil

which also cut grubs and slugs that sometimes toil.

That potassium in banana skins grow roses healthier.

Organic fresh cut grass adds nitrogen, a free fertilizer.

How to read the signs of the moon

in order for your plants to zoom.

What to plant side-by-side

and which should never reside.

When to prune

and how to prune.

How to deter deer

who are not dear.

Their advice

free, without price,

is not via the best chemicals to buy

but the best organic remedies to try.

For instance, Epsom salts grow better tomatoes.

They know the reason to hill up the row of potatoes.

Have you learned the reason?

It’s to prevent sunburn.

Yes, reading labels does teach,

as do catalogs sent to reach

perspective buyers who desire

to plant more, if they never tire.

Magazines and books

are other places to look

for needed advice

to make ones garden nice.

But the best advice, by far,

is from old timers who were

taught by family instructions (wise tales) passed down,

and through trial and error, ups and downs.

* * * * *

Many of our practices and sayings

are based on Biblical teachings.

For instance, our saying:

“Red sky in the morning,

sailors take warning.

Red sky at night,

sailors delight”

is a Biblical teaching.

The Bible has a lot to say about farmers,

or the smaller version of the same – gardeners.

Basically caring for the land

which provides for all of us humans.

That land is a gift from the Lord

upon which His blessings pour.

After reading this scripture from Isaiah

take a moment to appreciate – be in awe...

that God still speaks to us today:

through the Bible always,

through His wonderful creation,

through previous generations,

through our spirit

when we listen to it.

When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?

Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil?

When he has leveled the surface,

does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?

Does he not plant wheat in its place,

barley in its plot, and spelt in its field?

His God instructs him and teaches him the right way.

Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,

nor is a cartwheel rolled over cumin;

caraway is beaten out with a rod,

and cumin with a stick.

Grain must be ground to make bread;

so one does not go on threshing it forever.

Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it,

his horses do not grind it.

All this also comes from the Lord Almighty,

wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.

Isaiah 28:24-29

When evening comes, you say,

'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,'

and in the morning,

'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.'

Matthew 16:2

Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities -

his eternal power and divine nature -

have been clearly seen,

being understood from what has been made,

so that men are without excuse.

Romans 1:20

Teach them to your children,

talking about them when you sit at home

and when you walk along the road,

when you lie down and when you get up.

Deuteronomy 11:19

He who works the land

will have abundant food.

Proverbs 12:11

See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop

and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.

James 5:7

Life Is a Garden Party

is available via Amazon.