Category Archives: God

Aug3

Purple Haze Carrots and Other Veggies

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This record breaking summer heat and drought is making for miserable working conditions for Missouri farmers.   Dean & I are a part of the local agriculture scene, though we farm more for organic promotion, recreation, and creation purposes.    For the farmer who is required to be outdoors all day and everyday, it is disheartening to see your crops dry up and wither in the sun.  My friends at EarthDance Farms as well as all the local farmers cannot seed any more carrots, beets, and beans for a fall crop because the earth is rock hard, and the seeds cannot germinate without rain.  I miss my favorites: purple haze carrot, candy cane beets, and tender  bush green beans!   Please pray for rains, several rains for Missouri and our neighboring midwest states.  We need God’s divine intervention. Deanna Greens and Garden Art’s tropicals and houseplants such as bird of paradise, hibuscus, banana trees, spider plants, red leaf philodenrens, arrowheads, rabbit foot ferns, and asparagus ferns love this heat and humidty as long as they are under our shade trees during the day and have plenty of water.  We water everything twice a day when it is over 100 degrees, which means almost everyday for the past 6 weeks!  Our oldest daughter took care of the plants, cats, and house while we vacationed in cooler Minnesota.  We were so thankful for a much needed break!   Now onward to the Saturday markets and the rebuild of our greenhouse.

Jul9

The Movement of A Summer Storm

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St. Louis, Missouri and surrounding areas have encountered 10 days in a row of record high temperatures, triple digits with no or trace rain for almost a month.  The corn is turning gray and rustles with the wind like fall leaves. We have had to water our plants 2 times a day during the drought.  God, the plants need rain!  Nothing beats real rain water!  It finally brewed up yesterday, some places more so than others.  We marketed at the Chandler Hill Vineyards Farmers’ Market yesterday afternoon, watching the clouds turn to thunderheads and shift different directions.  Wind gusts would sway the tents one direction and switch in another minute.  Maybe movement for the better?  On our trip home we left the storm further behind us.  Awesome views while in the wine country hills of Defiance.  But yesterday evening finally my hometown St. Peters received 1/4 – 1/2″ of rain with the summer storm.   My cats even seemed curious about that rumbling outside.  We had not heard this in weeks.  Hallelujah, our rain buckets are full now!  Our plants are saying “aaahhh!”  Another summer storm is brewing up this afternoon.  Maybe more rain?!

Jun25

Create Art

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I contemplate what garden art to create as sales for starter plants have died down for now.  My antique pottery finds will make homes for some of our succulents this week, and tarnished serving spoons will make garden signs.  Relic stepping stones will feature treasures along my “gardening path”.    Pieces of  pottery,  hand trowels, canning jar lids, and  bottle caps, everything old will be cleverly displayed in these new garden stepping stones.  Creating something new from old, this is an art form to me.  Creating new recipes from standards ingredients is another art form to me.  The abundant herbs, pineapple sage and lemon thyme are needing the old branches pruned, to make way for new growth.  Those old leaves make a new crockpot dish with  chicken and brown rice for Dean & I’s Sunday dinner.   Yummy garden art!You know, God never gets tired of creating.  He is not done with me yet.  Thank you for that grace, my Father.  Many distractions, yet simply put, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”   My heart cries out to God this day, “God be My potter, I am Your vessel.”

Jun5

The Ambiance and Menu

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The ambiance and local menu tonight was colorful.  My huge kitchen is decorated with vases of our cut flowers and the fireplace mantle is overcome by beautiful blue hydrangeas from my parents’ yard.  Dean & I’s  dinner plates were filled with roasted spring root veggies and beef  farm fresh by friends who allow their cattle to graze in their farm’s natural pastureland.  I sit on my patio listening to the evening chatter of the birds and crickets until the summer night sky is dotted with fire flies. I needed some beauty in my life today.

My feline companions bat at the moth and June bug on the patio screen hoping to get a hold of them.  Celine and Lily will need to stay inside as the neighborhood Great Horned owl visits our tall backyard maple tree some evenings.  This may be one of those evenings.  We protect our animals from harm with barriers like screen doors.  Maybe similar to how our God sets up boundaries for us.  I take in the beauty of our green friends, the plants we care for everyday.  Tonight I will not water or trim or plant.  I will sit and enjoy the greenery.  They endured the sudden hail storm yesterday.  Our elephant ear , banana trees, and birds of paradise have ripped leaves now.  These plants will come through after some shedding.  Is not life like that?  We get hammered by hard blows,  unwarrantly and needlessly.  Yet, we rise again to be ourselves, probably better people for it if we allow.  Thank you God for the beauty my eyes behold tonight, and the reminder that the heart heals.

May29

How Many Hands?

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How many hands does it take to tear down and haul the parts for the Deanna Greens and Garden Art 1300 square foot greenhouse?  Well, it was Dean and I plus 10 family members and 4 friends, so that makes 16 able bodies, 16 smart brains, 32 sure feet, and 32 working hands.  The temperatures hit a hot & humid 95 degrees on the tear down day, typical summertime weather in St. Louis, Missouri.  Iced water, soda, and beer waited in coolers, and our lovely landlady brought us iced wet cloths for our necks and heads to keep us cooled down.   Freshly made sandwiches for lunch and home-cooked BBQ pulled pork with coleslaw for dinner.  More than anything, it was the attitudes that got us through.  I never heard a word of complaint, and no injuries were occurred at this Memorial Day holiday weekend project.   Tear down on Saturday, clean up on Sunday, and Monday hauling the greenhouse parts to Defiance, Missouri.  I am proud of this team!  Dean & I have the rebuild the next 3 or 4 weekends, and more help promised.  God is good!  And so are His people!  We are thankful!

May22

God’s Hands On Earth

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I ponder the Photo Challenge of the Week: Hands.  I keep coming back to the famous art work by Michelangelo’s “Hands of God And Adam”.  Adam literally means “earth” in Hebrew, what God called His first man.  This Hebrew word is derived from a word which means “to be red”, ruddy color like man’s skin or the Akkadian word “adamu” meaning “to make”.  According to Genesis, Adam was made from the earth “adamah”.   

With gardening, I feel the presence of God in all my senses.  I touch the dirt, the living earth.  I smell the basil as I plant it in the terra cotta pot, and hear the raindrops fall on its leaves.  My eyes and heart see the delicate pink hibuscus blossom opened wide to the sunlight peaking above the green tree tops.  And I taste the goodness of God when I indulge in my salad greens.  God is good!