Planting a Vegetable Garden--my 5 minute sermon

I started out this sermon with the intent of showing the similarity between cultivating a vegetable garden literally, and the metaphorical similarity to life experience.  The problem is that both life and the vegetable garden are quite complicated.  So, I have decided that I am just going to focus on the importance of choosing what to put in the garden.

I have considered planting vegetables for some time.  I LOVE salads, I LOVE fresh veggies, and everything I have ever eaten that has come fresh from the garden has always been spectacular.  I would enjoy the feeling of eating something that I grew all on my own.  The problem is, that preparing to cultivate a vegetable garden takes planning and preparation and I have no idea where to even begin.  I have never grown a vegetable garden before.  Of course now with the internet, I can access way more information than I ever needed or wanted on the subject.  So, off to Google I went.

As I started looking at what it took to prepare a plot for a vegetable garden, I started to visualize the similarity to life.  This is not an original idea.  The first act of the Judeo-Christan God was to construct the perfect garden.  Jesus shared several parables involving seeds, and planting and growth.  The Buddha talked about gardens and mindfulness.  The comparison of the garden shows up a lot and crosses religious boundaries.

I had used the comparison of deadheading the flowers to keep them blooming, I had visualized weeding my own inner garden so that the flowers grew unimpeded.  I had never really thought about how the garden got started.  Now, here I am contemplating a brand new vegetable garden, not to produce outward beauty, but to produce something I plan on using to nourish myself, and the prospect brings up a whole new type of comparison in my mind.

What do I want to produce?
Before I even begin considering where to position the garden, land preparation, or even size, I should decide what I want to grow.  Some vegetables require shade, some require full sun.  Some require lots of water, some require little.  There are different planting times, different periods for harvest, different types of fertilizer.  How can I even consider how the lay out of my garden, if I don't know what I want to plant.  Yet, at least for me, I laid out the garden of my life first and planted whatever was convenient and seemingly easy.  Of course, what I should have done, doesn't matter, I have to figure out how to turn what I had already created into something that produces fulfillment.  That complicates things, but before I could move forward, I still needed to think about what I wanted to plant.

I reached a point in my life, when society says I should be starting to see  the potential greatness of my garden.  And what I saw was a plot of land that needs a serious overhaul.  Some of what I had planted, I could save.  Some of what I had planted just had to go and be replaced by things I know will be more fulfilling.  And some of what I think will make my garden more fulfilling just won't grow in the plot I have started.  I will have to adjust for that.

All my childhood, I was taught both directly and indirectly how to set up a foundation for my life.  I went to school, I went to Sunday School, my parents instilled morals and values into me.  As I look back on my life, I wonder at my choices in planting my garden.  It is the job of the schools, of the churches, of parents, friends and elders, to show you the gardens they have planted in their own lives.  It is their job to let you apprentice in their gardens to learn the skills that you need to cultivate your own.  It is their job to offer you advice on how to grow your garden.

Ultimately though, it is your choice what to plant.  Some of us take the time to really look deeply into ourselves and plant a garden that nourishes us from day one.  Others of us (point an exaggerated finger at myself), find that rather than taking the advice and the skills learned and planting "our" garden, we plant a garden using a mix of vegetables we think we are supposed to plant because they are in the gardens of our mentors, but we don't  really like them. We plant what we think will make those around us happy.  And sometimes we sneak in a little of what we want.  Because we don't really like what we planted, we don't really take the time to maintain it.  Since we won't eat the vegetables produced, we get no fulfillment out of the garden.

My garden started to get over grown with weeds of resentment, insecurity, fear, and resignation.  Because I had chosen to plant vegetables I only moderately wanted, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about where to plant my garden, or how to maximize the potential of the location I chose.  As I look back on the garden I had planted, I am sure that I just took a rototiller, turned the soil, grabbed a handful of seeds and threw them out there.  I didn't spend a lot of time managing my garden, I did just what I needed to do to scrape by and have it look like something was happening.

I spent the last several years carefully examining what I had planted.  I pulled weeds, dug up plants, cleared the foundation.  Now I stand looking at a pretty sparse garden.  There are a few vegetables growing, but there is a lot of open space and a realization that starting to plant now, might mean that I don't get to experience the full power of my garden plot.  It will mean making adjustments and altering my wants to be more in line with my needs, but I can at least see what I have to work with.  I can spend some time now, really thinking about what I want to plant, and perhaps I will find that I can make some of the seemingly impossible grow with the help of some fertilizer and grow lights.

I ask you now, to take a look at the garden you have cultivated.  Is it everything you want?  Have you been maintaining it?  Will you find the produce fulfilling?  If so, congratulations, you have done amazing work.  If not, perhaps it is time to consider what you would like to see growing in your garden.  Who knows, with the new fertilizers coming out every day, maybe you can have a garden that contains everything your heart desires.