Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of stories about Linda Beck’s garden at her house, which was built in 2002.I’m trying to remember how sinful I have been lately. Was it screaming at the pesky squirrel or complaining about the rabbits, deer and groundhog?Have I been too wasteful or not thankful enough?
Maybe what I did or didn’t do has nothing to do with this at all. But the devil invaded my Garden of Eden and the battle is on for at least one month, maybe two.
I think somewhere someone is cloning this devil because hundreds have arrived overnight. When I bought a climbing yellow rose bush, my sister-in-law showed me the first of those devils sitting right on that rose.I had said I wasn’t going to “do” roses because of these devils but I got two bargains I just couldn’t resist. So the pests came, just as I knew they would. But I didn’t have roses last year and still the pests came. For a while I thought there would be no blooms on my crape myrtles because they ate, slept, played and lived on those a whole month.
All around crape myrtles were in full bloom except here in my private garden. But then just as they arrived one day, they were gone and shortly after the enemy left, blooms came in spite of the lengthy picnic they had enjoyed.
I hate dusting and spraying, so last year I put out traps in the front and back yards. (Some authorities claim these just attract more to your yard.) There were so many of these pests I couldn’t help but recall some of the plagues ó frogs, gnats, flies, hail, locusts and darkness ó that God sent in Biblical times.
Well, the plague of modern times is, you guessed it: Japanese beetles! I can cuss ’em, catch ’em, swat ’em, dust ’em, and spray ’em but when I go out the next day, more have come. (These pests keep coming just as we all keep sinning.) I don’t like to use the word hate, but most gardeners know the same feeling. This particular day I dusted everything though I hate to have white powder all over my pretties.
There are some corny jokes that float around about why God sent mosquitoes, flies, rats, mice etc. I’ve been told God’s plan included something called “The Food Chain” but I don’t know quite all I should know about that.
When I’m working in my yard and back when I had vegetable gardens, my main thoughts were “why weeds and thistles?’ Actually, the answer th that is located in scripture: Genesis 3:17-19.
It’s interesting though, that now I have an affinity for some weeds; they are called wildflowers. I’ve discovered they dry right alongside pansies in the Microfleur.
On this particular day, 3-year-old Hallie Renee and I had “scootered” through the development harvesting wildflowers that we could reach from the edge of the road. I’m trying to teach her to love the things of nature that God gives us, so I avoid the word weed around her. If it has color …
Linda Beck has her house and garden in Woodleaf. Contact her at lindainthecards@ carolina.rr.com.