Life Like Gardening

I like well tended gardens. I like gardens where there are no weeds and all the flowers bloom. I like gardens that have flowers blooming, birds singing, and neat rows of flowers and plants. I love gardens like that....but mine is nothing like that.

My garden looks like a Mega-Gardening Center threw up. I have plants everywhere and thanks to a "plant-buying" addiction, I have plants in pots that need to be planted. I have difficulty curbing this addiction. For example, I went to Lowes and they had Wax Myrtles on sale for 4 dollars....4 dollars! So I bought one. It now sits with two upright yews and a couple of fringe flowers waiting to be planted. Keep me away from Nicholson and Hardie, Calloways and Jacksons (three places I score my addiction) until I plant what I have.

Plants need to come with warning labels. My root beer plant that I bought two years ago has now taken over half my back yard and is now trying to take over two other flower beds. The warning label should have read, "Plant in a pot only. This plant will utterly take over your back yard." Same should go for Monkey grass (which should be renamed "ground cover from hell") and Asiatic Jasmine (I hope the person who planted this at my house years ago suffers from a really bad case of hemorrhoids). Why can't petunias or Japanese maples take over? That, I would enjoy.

Weeding is a whole 'nother issue? I have a bind weed problem. My vegetable garden (which has only produced 7 tomatoes in the past ten years) seems to attract bind weeds. If I don't pull weeds at least every other day, I would not be able to find my tomato plants. I wonder what would happen if there was a smack down between bind weed and root beer plant. Now that would be a pay-per-view event.

But life is like gardening. We all have weeds. We all have something in our lives that "goes rogue" and tries to take over. And we all have beautiful spots in our lives that bloom and bring joy despite the best attempts of the weeds to ruin it. God gives us all a gift that, when planted, watered and cultivated brings joy to his heart and ministers to those around us. Yeah, we have weeds but the beauty of what God has planted surpasses the chaos in our lives. Have a great weekend.