The Wiccan Christian

I grew up on a farm, which meant we had a lot of “farm chores” to do. One of these “farm chores” was maintaining a garden that I swear my dad made the size of a city block! Planting, raking, weeding and harvesting this big garden was not my favorite chore. And all that hard work, I swear, had to be done on the hottest days of the summer.

I especially remember the long, plentiful rows of potatoes, beans and peas. I know we planted more items, but it’s these three I think about most. Why? Because I very much disliked picking beans and peas from these mile long rows. Really, I am not exaggerating (😂).

I did get some satisfaction out of digging up potatoes in the fall though. It was always fun to see “How big did they get?” Or, “How many did this plant produce?”. Potatoes became more like a mystery game. So I did get some kind of enjoyment out of digging up potatoes (unless my dad was involved in the process as well. He always seemed to make jobs harder than they needed to be).

Am I complaining? Yes. I really did not like gardening as a child or preteen or teen. But, when I became an adult and had my own space for gardening I absolutely loved it. Still love it. The gardening size has just gotten quite smaller with the space I have available now. Maybe I love it as an adult now because I don’t plant peas or beans. As a younger person those were two vegetables I swore I would not plant if I ever made a garden just for myself.

And my very own garden today consists, not of vegetables, but of flowers. Flowers are more my passion than a vegetable garden. Although, I do understand a vegetable garden to be more of a necessity. Especially these days with the rising cost of food.

Now that I think about it, the garden was one of many “farm chores” I truly disliked.

But I was a kid. What did I know? I just wanted to play with my friends and have a day off from “chores” more often than just a Sunday afternoon, after dinner dishes were done.