Hope, Faith and the Miracle of Seeds
The New Year truly starts when the first seeds are pressed into the earth.
Springtime, for me, is a season of hope and faith. That’s epitomized most clearly by seeds. I hope they will sprout, and I have faith that, somehow, they will.
My success rate, though, is still uneven. Maybe that will improve this year.
Seeds, in fact, amaze me. It’s humbling to watch something so wonderful – whether flowers or vegetables – grow from something so tiny. Some feed our souls, others feed our bodies. Both contribute to our well-being.
Poppy seeds are an example. I planted a packet of red corn poppies a couple weeks ago, indoors. These are the poppies immortalized in John McCrae’s poem, “In Flanders Fields,” and showcased earlier in Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, “Poppy Field.” The seeds that spouted in early April clearly showcase my less-than-uniform dispersal method, but they also show my window box wildflower garden is off to a good start. I have hope.
I suspect the head lettuce I planted outdoors recently will sprout rather unevenly, too, since I accidentally dropped many of the minuscule, excess, seeds I was trying to return to the seed envelop! Can you have too much lettuce? (Personally, I think you can, but I guess we’ll see.)
Randy and I have planted seeds – rather than starter plants – for the past few years. It’s been an act of faith. We could even call it a leap.
The first year, we had a bumper crop of tomatoes that supplied gallons of salsa, tomato sauce, and fresh-from the vine slicers. That was heaven, and it renewed my believe in the potential of seeds and our ability to grow a productive garden in our cool, damp climate, and short growing season.
Then, we joined Master Gardeners’ “Green School.” We learned why prior gardens hadn’t succeeded and what we could do to tilt the odds in our favor. That helped. A lot.
Last May, in the middle of that lengthy training course, Randy and I planted a lot more seeds. Not everything succeeded – summer was cooler and wetter than normal, thwarting even seasoned gardeners. It was almost all people talked about at the county fair!
None-the-less, our pole beans thrived. In fact, we’re still eating green beans from that garden endeavor. With that in mind, I firmly believe that spring is about potential.
New Year’s resolutions are great, but I still think spring is the season of possibilities. This is when we actually see the earth reawakening from its slumber and bursting forth with new life. Spring is when the promises of summer begin to be fulfilled.
Those promises may not be realized for many months but, with good conditions, there is the hope of nourishment for body and soul throughout the coming season. To me, spring is the real beginning of the new year!