Truth be told, it's easier for me to handle the garden on my own, but I want to teach the children to love the earth, so tonight for FHE, we made it a family affair.
We started by singing "The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden" from the Children's Songbook and thought of some reasons why we're planting a garden:
- To have good food for our family.
- To have food to preserve.
- To work with the earth. When we give to the earth, she gives back.
- To care for living things.
- To be able to share with others.
We talked about Adam and Eve, what their garden and family life must have been like, and Keenan shared Genesis 3:19. He also shared a paragraph from "Listen to the Prophets," a great talk by President Kimball:
"The spring of the year reminds us, too, of the need to garden so that we can produce some of our own food as well as flowers to beautify our yards and our neighborhoods... Even if the plot of soil you cultivate, plant, and harvest is a small one, it brings human nature closer to nature as was the case in the beginning with our first parents."
We also liked the next part:
"...As a boy I saw how all, young and old, worked and worked hard. We knew that we were taming the Arizona desert. But had I been wiser then, I would have realized that we were taming ourselves, too. Honest toil in subduing sagebrush, taming deserts, channeling rivers, helps to take the wildness out of man's environment but also out of him."After the little lesson, we went outside and planted a few seeds.
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| I bagged my soil and moved my grow boxes to the new house. This time I have a couple on the back patio. |
First we turned the soil around a few times to be sure our homemade compost was well incorporated. We've been following Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening for the past few years, which we like for a lot of reasons (but that's another post). The better your compost, the better it works.
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| Everyone got to plant! |
We finished the evening with a prayer, thanking Heavenly Father for our garden and asking him to bless our new seeds to sprout.
You are surrounded by beautiful boys, Nonie. And soon will have beautiful berries and tomatoes! I should just buckle down and buy a tomato plant or something. I keep thinking, "Well I'm just renting this place. I'll wait until I have a garden of my own." Then I think of you.
ReplyDeleteGreat FHE topic!
I bought some tomato plants, because I truly felt that was all I could do amidst moving, and taking care of things inside our house. I then forgot about the plants, and they died. How do you manage to stay so on top of things, Nonie?
ReplyDeleteP.S. I love the quotes you included!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteStephen and I just read this together. We are "amazed and know not what to say" ( Midsummer Night's Dream). It is phenomenal what you Reesors accomplish. You even moved your dirt! Getting hands into the soil is one of the most satisfying things a hand can do. So beautiful to include those precious little boys, and that big one too. Congratulations Reesors!
ReplyDeleteWe are now enjoying watching our almost fully grown chickens run around the garden full of potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes here on Delia Drive, and try to nest in the lovely dirt. They eat the bugs off the lawn and pal around together in the evenings, and just as the darkness begins to set in, they huddle back into their comfy coop together; all six sitting along one stick up high in the coop. "Aren't chickens funny, to be that way?" (Think said the Robin, Think said the Jay). Of late, 2 of the chickens turned into roosters. We will miss them. We are really looking forward to our first batch of home grown eggs!
Gardens, Compost, and Chickens ... "We're Growin' Our Food ... Naturally".
We Love what you do!