grace grits and gardening

My Lessons from Nature.

This year so far, our spring has been indecisive and teasing. In one sleep, our wild weather vacillates from hard freeze to near 80 degrees. Since February, I’ve been growing African daisies, marigolds, okra, and basil in my makeshift greenhouse.

What’s a makeshift greenhouse? In my world, it’s a folding table shoved in front of a sunny window in our garage. Our garage is heated, so it works until we can build a real greenhouse.

I have succulent and coleus cuttings, and a bulb of fennel the butterflies will love. Ten days ago, John and I rescued a flat of waterlogged coreopsis being sold at the nursery for next to nothing. After only a few days of drying time in our warm greenhouse, they made a huge comeback and are ready to go in the soil.

Yes, we are plant rescuers. When fair-weathered friends toss Halloween chrysanthemums to the curb, we’ve been known to haul them home in the trunk of our vehicle and nurse them back to health.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m getting antsy with this greenhouse arrangement. I rotate the plants so that no one hogs the sunlight. On warm days, I take them outside for fresh air and direct sunlight. Before dark, I return them inside because frost is still a real threat. I am teaching them the importance of taking baby steps.

You have to be patient, I tell them.

They continue to wait.

I provide water and promises of this too shall pass.

I don’t know if they can hear me, but I think they can.

All this waiting and watching the weather has me thinking about the lessons I’ve learned from nature and gardening and life as a farm girl. You know that book All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten? I might say the same for nature. Most everything I’ve learned, I learned from a connection to nature, playing outside, growing up on a farm.Continue Reading