The Master's Garden!

Four horse troughs,
three  5-gallon(?) pots

Probably inspired by our neighbor, my husband (H) decided to plant container gardens this spring.


He bought 4 horse watering troughs for containers and 3 huge flower pots. He said they were horse troughs. One looked like a fiberglass bathtub, complete with drain, but I am not into bathing in the back yard. I prefer temperature controlled water and a tad more privacy.

Tiny Sweet Bell
Pepper and Bloom

He planted tomatoes and sweet green peppers, while I largely ignored his endeavors, until I realized he was serious. Then I requested stringless green beans and Roma tomatoes.


We have a difference of opinion on salad tomatoes. I prefer Romas with less juice, and he likes  chopped large juicy tomatoes that can also be sliced, hamburger style.  We will have both as there are green tomatoes of both styles currently growing in the horse troughs.


To date there is one tiny sweet bell pepper. 

Tomatoes and Blooms

And one variety of green bean has blossoms. One variety of green  bean looked puny--some yellowish leaves and chewed off leaves. I suspected several leaf eating species of insects or caterpillars--that is until I paused snapping photos, long enough to glance back at the green beans. The leaf cutter had 4 legs instead of 8 or more. Luckie was happily grazing on the green bean leaves.


Now we must battle leaf chewing insects, caterpillars, and a loopy canine aspiring to be a vegetarian.

We have known druggies on our block. Hope our little array of plants are not mistaken for adding and abetting our neighbors' illicit habits. Smoking tomato leaves or rolling bean leaves doesn't see like a suitable substitute for their particular palates. I suspect they are far more into cooking, dealing and trafficking.

It is interesting to watch traffic on my street. Having been in a profession where I was required to be able to identify legitimate and illegitimate drug user, I have a life-time of observation. Buyers, dealers, and users on my street frequent one house and arrive in an assortment of licensed vehicles. However, a large number are on-foot, riding bicycles, scooters, or smaller motorcycles not requiring licenses. You see, they have already lost their driver's licenses, soon to be second (or more) offenders.

And More Tomatoes

These are not inspiring photos. Summer is less splashy with color. Everything is green, as it should be, of course. I failed to find patterns that I usually see today. I usually delight in monochrome challenges. Not today.

Anyone who is creative has days, even weeks or months, when the Muses  fail to deliver the inspirative germination, leaving us void of creative genius.

Duo Basking in the Sun - I

Today was such a day.

Consider two photos of tomatoes in another setting and time.

Duo Basking in the Sun - II

Nature and the Human Spirit - Just Surviving, Not Thriving

Today I strolled around our small piece of Ozark Living created by the Master of all Creation. Since I'm allergic to nearly everything, this is an infrequent stroll. I used to do yard work until Mother Nature and I arrived at an impasse.

My husband and I were placing shrubbery for the nursery workers to plant. I pruned a few old shrubs, including a japonica plant (C. Japonica) or flowering quince, which regularly bears small quinces. The fruit turns from green to yellow by autumn. Squirrels and deer love the mature fruit.

I also clipped two short pieces of a wild climbing rose.

The japonica and wild rose plants were on the property when we bought it 29 years ago.

I marvel at the plants' endurance: they continued to bloom and produce fruit, despite neglect - no fertilizer, no insecticides, no pruning, only watered by rainfall. The fruit and flowers might be larger or prettier, if the plants received attention and care. The plants are just surviving, not thriving.

So it is the human spirit and soul.

Have you ever seen persons just getting by, just existing, just enduring 24 hours a day-- just making ends meet---for what. There is no hope, no joy, no love, no karma, no serendipity, no passion or compassion, no expectations, nothing - just surviving, not thriving.

Why?

Sometimes we marvel at people who "keep on keeping on," without considering what they may be missing, for which they may be longing, hoping and desiring. It is possible we slip into this monotonous, endless cycle of life and yell "Stop the world, I want to get off."

Where is the feeding of the human spirit and soul? Where is fuel for future growth and strength? Where is hope? It seems we neglect the spiritual feeding and soul enrichment [fertilizer], some time a little discipline [pruning and insecticides], water [care], for ourselves and also sharing with others. We think, there will be time for that later..but LATER never arrives.

Integrated in this process is a Loving Creator, who will love, care, provide, cultivate, feed and discipline those who humble themselves before Him; He prepares us to live in the New Eden.

We should be thriving, not just surviving!

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10