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Oh, the Garden Life on a Sunday Morning Stroll

by | Jun 8, 2013

How good it is! Early Sunday morning is my time to soak up the joy and abundance of my garden before we head off to Sunday school, church, then on to our folks for the meals of the day. Our Golden Babs gets me up at my normal hour of 5am because her tummy doesn’t realize this is not a normal workday. But this is a good thing because it gives me opportunity to walk my gardens, make some mental lists, see what is about to bloom and enjoy the incredible wildlife happenings…taking time to smell the roses or the zinnias perhaps.

IMG_20130607_151221_440Songbirds and other wildlife we share this place with gift me with the most amazing music as I write. We have Robins sitting on nests, Bluebird eggs about to hatch and Red-Tailed hawk babies ready to venture out from the safety of their nest. I saw a mother Chickadee bathe in our bubbler while her babies watched this morning.  Made me think she was teaching them how important keeping their feathers clean and well groomed was!

As a full time farmer, I must develop habits, schedules and focus in order to not allow the farm to run me. Farming is a living, growing thing, not a desk or computer job where the work just piles up until you get to it. If I miss the window of opportunity for a chore, sometimes I have lost it forever. Mulching is a great example: if the bed or pathways don’t get mulched before the weeds grow, then another whole chore has to be done before we can mulch—if it can even be done. Harvesting follows the same pattern; if I were to miss a harvest day, then the garden would be full of old flowers that still need to be cut to stimulate new growth, but they would not be sellable. All the work, but no reward…

When I am out in the garden harvesting, I barely even notice the beds around me that aren’t blooming yet. It is on the Sunday morning garden strolls that I see what is to come and what we may have missed. As a farmer, I understand so well why Sunday needs to be a day of rest, recuperation, visiting, and restoration.  To fulfill the other days of my week I so need my battery recharged. A walk in my garden is the perfect start to this day.

Pictured: Uproar Zinnia bed June 2013

 

Garden because it is good for you and your family!

Lisa Z

Lisa Mason Ziegler is a commercial cut-flower farmer in Newport News, Virginia; she lectures and writes about organic and sustainable gardening. You can email Lisa at [email protected] , call her at 757-877-7159 or visit her website www.shoptgw.com .

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