I haven’t had our garden’s dirt under my fingernails in a few months now.
Because of hectic and uncertain schedules, we didn’t plant any winter crops
at Sparrow Farm, just covered our soil with a good sheet mulch. I’m so eager
to get back outside, actively participating in the miracle of Spring. And
I’m guessing I’m not alone in this. Some people have already been mapping
out their Spring garden, with what they will plant and where they will plant
it. For this year’s layout, let me suggest something that may be new to you:
companion planting.
If you really enjoy your neat and organized rows, prepare yourself before
reading further. Companion planting is a technique of combining plants so
that they can benefit each other in the garden. This may come at the cost of
tidiness and the feeling of manageability, but this surrendering to the
inherent benefits of nature can be quite liberating. Try planting your
vining cucumber with your corn, so it can have a natural trellis. Or your
carrots with your lettuce so your lettuce can provide ground cover and your
carrots can be pulled up at just the right time to aerate the soil to finish
your lettuce. Maybe you plant a nitrogen needy plant with at nitrogen fixing
plant. How about an insect sensitive plant with something like marigolds or
nasturtiums, that repel bad bugs and draw good ones like pollinators? The
combinations are endless, but the point is that you give everything multiple
functions. Learn the needs and benefits of your plants, then place them
accordingly. Most plants have friends and enemies. Using them can take a lot
of work off of your shoulders and add to the magic of the growing
experience.
(There are so many resources for companion planting available and currently
being developed. You may just want to Google it, or you can start here
http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/companion-planting)
It can be difficult to let go of our need for clearly defined categories.
This desire seems to run deep in our lives. But it is dangerous and keeps us
from experiencing fullness in areas of our lives. Many of us tend to
consider our walk with God as a category of our lives. When we come to spend
time with Him we may even intentionally clear our minds of whatever is going
on around us. I believe that there is a time for this- but if we never let
God break out of the neat, little row that we place Him in, then we never
really experience His power.
In Richard J. Foster’s book, “Celebration of Discipline”
(which I HIGHLY recommend), he speaks of different practices for meditation.
Most of them I had heard of and/or practiced before, like meditating on the
Scriptures, or in nature, or using different “spiritual breathing”
exercises, but one was brand new to me and I think it applies this lesson
well. It is to meditate on scripture or pray with the Bible in one hand, and a newspaper (or
might I suggest our “Church Condition Reports” blog series) in the other. Thomas
Merton wrote that the person “who has meditated on the Passion of Christ
but has not meditated on the extermination camps of Dachau and Auschwitz has
not yet fully entered into the experience of Christianity in our time.”
Foster goes on to say, “We would do well to hold the events of our time
before God and ask for prophetic insight to discern where these things lead.
Further, we should ask for guidance for anything we personally should be
doing to be salt and light in our decaying world.”
This year, I would challenge you to give companion planting a try. Consider
it an experiment. As you break out of neat rows in your garden, break out in
your life as a Christian, as well. Apply your walk with God to your daily
life, and apply your role within your global community to your prayer life.
I think you will find your role in this world and your role as a Christian
to be quite compatible when grown together.
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