He is risen. Celebrate Easter

It's all in the seeds

I like to work in the garden. When I plant a lemon yellow cucumber seed, I know I will eventually get a lemon yellow cucumber plant.
We are children of an Eternal Father. What can we grow to be?

The fig tree

Five years ago I planted a fig tree.
I grew up in California. We had fig trees on the property. They were wonderful climbing trees, the branches spread out and up, the big, heavy leaves made plenty of shade and in the middle we had a wonderful fort.
I wasn't trying to grow a fort, just figs. We live in the desert, but we are at 4500 feet. Sometimes we get a little snow in the winter--very little. But it does get cold. And in the winter my fig tree died. Come spring I had a dead, dry stick where a fledgling fig had tried to grow. I snapped it right off. But just in case I watered the roots.
That year a sprout grew up and formed a new, small tree. It froze in the winter. Year three, the tree roots put up an entire circle of branches that grew out, low to the ground. And I got lots of figs.
The fellow who helps with the yard wanted to prune my fig tree, shape it up. I told him the tree had found its shape. It lived through the winter, thrived, gave me lots of figs again.
This year the branches are stronger and taller, and new leaves are out. Not one branch died back during the winter.
When it gets cold, remember: spread out, stay low and keep growing!!
Works for figs.
In the meantime, keep watering.

Oh my, oh my!! Yesterday it was 81 degrees here in the afternoon. Right now it is raining like crazy. I could be filling barrels with rain water. Everything looks wet and shiny and green--well green is relative. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, and then we move to partly cloudy and back to sunshine! Hooray for April Showers!

A rose by any other name. . . .

You would think, living in the desert, that cactus have all the advantages. I used to worry about my rose bushes. But roses thrive with all our sunshine. They have a heavy dark leaf and a fairly heavy clustered petal. No. Roses do fine as long as they have water. What I did find is that some types of cactus need protection from direct sunlight at least for part of the day, and so I plant them under the rose bushes where they can get shade. They do well there.
Never fear, not everything prickly is as tough as it appears. A lot of us can put on a good show, all mean and thorny--but what we really want is the shade and moisture under a deep green, fabulous smelling rose.
And a few of us are roses.
Which is what makes life in the garden infinitely interesting!

I love springtime. I love pre-springtime. I love anticipating the garden I am going to grow and starting my little seedlings inside in the kitchen. Every year the same foolish notion. And the seedlings grow up in their tiny boxes in their oh, so protected environment, and then, because I have been waiting so long to see the lush garden begun, I take them outside in the sun, and the wind, and the cold evenings, and I kill them. Patience Karne, patience. That's what makes your garden grow. So, yes once again I have killed my tender little sprouts, and once again I am ready to plant seeds directly into the dirt, where they inevitably grow up and are strong and sturdy living plants. But the first method always seems like a good idea. Next year, no more babying the little guys, I'll just have to outwait myself and do the first real planting outside!

Post it note

Do you think facebook is just too easy?? I can write a sentence or two and that's that. But, fewer people are making fewer posts on their blogs. Where are you? Come back. One of you is me!