Several years ago, I first took an interest in gardening. I was living in a rented house that had lots of pretty flowers in the back yard, along with a strawberry patch. Our neighbor across the street had a huge garden which included corn–in the city. She gave me some purple basil, which I planted in this little circle around a burning bush in my front yard.

I experimented with flats of different flowers in that spot, and I also planted some seeds there. I watered everything faithfully, and was so excited when I saw leaves appear.

The seeds were for jade, I think, and for a while I was convinced that what I saw was what I had planted.

We were talking about mustard seed faith in church at the time, so I was over the moon about this physical proof of seedtime and harvest.

Except….I began to notice that same plant sprouting up where I had not planted seed. What I had thought was jade was actually a weed.

This failed experiment did a little damage to my faith. I doubted that seeds actually produced anything. At the very least, I began to believe that I could only grow something that had been started for me–a flat, a clipping, a transplant, etc.

We moved out of the rental house soon after, buying our first house. This house didn’t have any flowers or garden. The only landscaping was a few evergreen bushes flanking the garage and around the house.

There was a huge flower bed beside the front door, though, lined and ready for planting. I tried to plant some of the flowers I knew from the old house in that spot, but I didn’t have much success.

Eventually, I pulled up the plastic lining, removed all the rocks, and planted as many daffodil bulbs I could stand. One of those bulbs was actually a daylily! I was thrilled to have something go from bulb to bushy shrub with bright orange flowers in summer! So now I could plant flats and bulbs.

My faith grew along with my landscape.

A couple years ago, we made a vegetable garden in the backyard. I transplanted some of our science experiments there: a sprouted sweet potato, a white potato and some onions. We also planted some seeds.

Our backyard is at least 90% shade. It is good with hostas and impatiens, not vegetables. This was less of a blow to my faith, and more of a ‘duh!’ moment.

Last year, we planted some pinto beans for school. The experiment was ‘which plant will grow larger: the one in the sun, or the shade?’ Hmmm, I wonder?

We transplanted the bean plants, one much larger than other–in the side yard, which gets 90% sunshine. That bed also has two rosebushes and several bushy snapdragons. Both bean plants flourished and began to grow flowers. Soon, long bean pods stretched forth on our little bean experiment.

So we had gone from seed to seedling to beans! Meanwhile, I also planted radishes and hollyhocks from seed.

The radishes grew and matured and then turned to wood before we picked them. The hollyhock began to grow, looking suspiciously like a weed…

This year, the hollyhock sprouted out and grew tall. Soon, it sent out flowers, hidden in green pods before they tentatively opened. When it started blooming, I saw that I had several hollyhocks, one red, three white. They shot up tall, and once the long stalk started blooming, the flowers fell over. I staked them, and am thrilled to see them standing tall and beautiful every day.

This year, we planted zucchini, two kinds of beans, and radishes in the sunny flowerbed. We harvested our first bean pod today! The zucchini is growing beautifully, and we picked the radishes too early. Joy replanted them, and says they are growing fine, although I have yet to see them.

The sunny garden now boasts two bean plants, two rose bushes, bushy daylilies and snapdragons, hollyhocks, zucchini and radishes. I am fully convinced of God’s faithfulness with seeds and plants. I look forward to harvesting zucchini, beans, and radishes!