In creating this blog, I’ve scoured the internet looking at other blogs. There are so many interesting ideas out there! In the process, I’ve added a dozen new blogs to my reading list. And I’ve discovered that I don’t have anything new and different to offer. This blog is just me being me. I am simply creating my own little patch of happiness – and doing so by gathering touchpoints from other resources. In my real-world job I am often saying that there is no need to reinvent the wheel. I’m not inventing anything here at Patch405. And possibly, I’m not providing any new perspectives.
Case and point would witnessing the first spouts in your garden. I don’t know that I have a new perspective to lend to the conversation. However, I can absolutely affirm what you have probably heard, read and/or experienced time and time again. Life is amazing!
How can I take a shriveled-up pea, place it in the ground, water it, and mere days later witness it growing as a plant above the ground? And why does it bring me such joy?
How can I take the speck that is a radish seed and do the same? It is so small. How does it not get washed away by the water or eaten by a bug? How does something so small burst into a living plant, ultimately becoming food for me to eat?
The whole process is truly miraculous.
No two seeds are the same. Every seed has different planting instructions, different soil, watering, and fertilizer needs, different days of growth to maturity. But yet, the process is basically the same. The average human can plant a seed and see results – most of the time.
I can remember my children growing seeds in elementary school. Sometimes it was in a plastic sandwich bag; sometimes it was in a Dixie cup. But every time, the seed grew. And every time, the kids were amazed. I feel like a kid every time I look at my garden. I know that I planted each and every seed with the expectation that it would grow. And yet, I am still astonished – every time – when the little green leaves burst through the dirt and make their way up into the sunshine. (As a side note, I do have a problem with the concept of thinning. I don’t understand why we aren’t instructed to plant the seeds at the desired spacing from the beginning. I truly hate to pull a seedling. Seems like such a waste.)
Furthermore, planting seeds and producing food is a universal experience. The process worked for my Dad in my backyard garden in South Carolina. It works for me in Oklahoma. It works for my friend Ursula in Germany. I imagine it works in much the same way all over the world. To me, that is remarkable.
One of the motivations behind Patch405 is to ‘restore my soul.’ Slowing down my life, taking time to contemplate how seeds grow into plants, seeing the actual results of my labor displayed by these simple pea plants … all of that restores my soul. All that restoration and I have yet to see my first actual pea. I can’t wait!
Patch405 