The garden was Mary’s domain. I’ve been intimidated to enter it. I’ve been put on notice about treating *her* plants improperly. I let go of some of that today. It’s not easy to take ownership and risk losing blooms that remind us of her. But like everything else, life is for the living. And I know Mary would want nothing more than a vegetable garden tended to by her sons.
We have the opportunity to do so through Winterthur’s Kids Grow program. The boys are veterans of the program, but I’m new to the hard parts. In the past I’ve mostly harvested and eaten their delicious produce.
Due to governmental restrictions, the program must be done from home. This program gets children out into the sun, with their hands in the dirt, strengthening their immune systems. The irrationality of limiting activities like this and all the wonderful summer camps makes me very sad.
But nothing can stop me from doing what is right for myself and my sons. We spent much of the day tackling a half-tended-to flower bed, preparing it for our new vegetable seeds.
The last picture is of sunflowers that are coming up from seeds that were dropped two years ago. Along with some hostas and purple bean plants, they are the only green to survive the prep.
Sunflowers were a favorite of Mary’s, as were the purple bean plants and hostas.
We planted the tomato plants that Winterthur provided and look forward to learning about the wealth of seeds that were sent home with us.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason
