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.
Potassium in banana peels 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 grows 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 look 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 still God 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
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