Winter to Spring Garden Prep: the Hard Work of Beauty

Ladies,

Making things beautiful is hard work.

I stood in my winter garden yesterday in the February air looking at how beauty can degrade.

None of the outcomes we enjoy happen as quickly as a scroll to it, or a page turned, or a video clicked.

The truth of beauty is that it is sometimes hard to create, that it comes after long seasons of dormancy and tending, it can be fleeting, and then we go back to work to bring it about again.

The daily borage of insects and mildew threatened to destroy my flowers daily last spring and summer. I went out to water plants in warm mornings that turned into blazing afternoons, barely keeping things from wilting worse later in the sun. I grew tomatoes for the pests to feast on without getting one for us to eat. The weeds and insects were overwhelming, and I felt the intensity of earth pushing against my every effort. Making a garden was hard work but I also had roses and wildflowers and a garden to sit in under an umbrella.

These days I sit on the cold ground, dirt covers my backside, as I pull weeds, and dodge insects waking up from their winter hibernation.

After frigid winter days the warm sunshine feels invigorating. I am basking in the sunshine, breathing in fresh air, listening to the birds sing, and letting creativity flow. Maybe we need the after photos to know what something can be, but we also need to value the time and work it takes to make it that. I enjoy my garden more than someone glancing at a photo of it. And I’m blessed for that. I get to experience something more than just scrolling to it.

I look forward to more than just taking beautiful photos of a garden, I look forward to flinging open my door in the morning, walking on the grass to it, watching the bees discover it.

This weedy muddy February garden is transforming little by little, joy by joy.

Working to make things beautiful makes me even more grateful for the beauty that God works and does every day that we get to enjoy. From the fresh air blowing through my window to the color of the sky, it is so easy to pass by the beauty that He gives to us every day. I’m so grateful to Him for letting me do the work of beauty like him.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

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