Warm Mud

            For the past few weeks I have been planting a couple hundred seedlings in small greenhouses in my kitchen. Even though I do not have all that much responsibility in this process, there are a few things I need to do. I need to water the dirt, keep my cat from digging them up, put them in the sun, and keep them warm at night and from bad weather. Even if I do all of that perfectly and put all of my attention to guarding the little greenhouses, nothing will happen if there is no seed. Sure, everyone knows that. It’s obvious. Well-watered, sun-soaked seeds become life-giving miracles. Well-watered, sun-soaked dirt becomes warm mud. We are the same. We can do everything possible to make ourselves good. We can weed out all of the bad stuff we see in our lives. We can take care of our bodies and our minds to the best of our abilities. We can soak up all of the positive influences and knowledge available and avoid extremes and contaminants. But unless the Holy Spirit has been planted inside of us, we are simply warm-mud. We must be born again by the Holy Spirit through Christ in order for anything to come about. We cannot be such good mud that we produce a great strawberry, or even a lousy strawberry. No strawberry will come from that. Nothing spiritually good will come from us unless we have been implanted with the Holy Spirit. We can strive to be good people, and we may succeed to some extent. We can be very satisfied with how much better our mud is than the next guy. He’s all dried-out and full of cracks. And that other guy, well he’s just clay. That girl over there is flooded and another girl is full of contaminants. I’m great. I’m clean, warm mud with the right amount of nitrogen and other nutrients. But when it comes down to it, we’re still just mud.

            Plants are great. They are so life-giving. They produce oxygen and food and add flavor and color to this world. We can be that too, but not in our own power. We need God to plant himself in our lives in order to do his good in this world. He does that by offering us his Son. He already died to bring us new life. Like a seed, his body was buried but he sprang up in new life. He produced fruit too, and offers to plant that seed in us. The Holy Spirit comes inside of us when we accept what Christ has to offer and makes us new. It is only then that our mud is worth something. The great thing is that he is hardy. He is better than plants (well of course, he is their Designer). We do not have to clean out ourselves to receive him. The Holy Spirit comes and waters the dry. He purifies the contaminants. He helps us see the light we thought couldn’t reach us. And he makes us into something great.

I am excited to watch this happen in Ogden. First with the small plot of land I’ll be working on this weekend, but ultimately in the hearts of her people. New life for Ogden; that is my goal.

These are the new plans for the rows (or rays, with the sun design) making us of companion plants:

RAISED STRAWBERRY BED-rows

Strawberries

Rays of Borage and Tarragon

SUN-mix it all up

Lettuce

Spinach (with Cilantro intermixed)

Radishes

Garlic

Dill

Lovage

Terragon

Chard

Marigolds (arc perimeter)

TRELLIS-one row, put herbs in between

Pole beans

Garden beans

Little Marvel Pea

Dwarf Sugar Pea

Lovage

Borage

Dill

SQUASH GARDEN-one row of each herb, put same squashes together

Tarragon

Borage

Lovage

Marigolds

Sweet Meat Squash

Hybrid Squash

Crookneck Squash

CUCUMBER/MELON-one row of each herb//beats/marigolds on west side, put same fruits together/one row of half carrots, half radishes, separated

Cucumbers

Green Melon

Canteloupe

Crenshaw Melon

Sweet Baby Watermelon

Watermelon

French Radishes

Beets

Dill

Borage

Garlic

Carrots

Lovage

GREENS-single row of herbs/Brussels Sprouts, rows of other vegetables kept together

Brussels sprouts

Kale

Broccoli

Dill

Onion

Garlic

Chives

Rosemary

Lovage

Tarragon

Marigolds

Basil

SALSA GARDEN I-single row of tomatoes and each herb, except two of basil

Basil

Tarragon

Lovage

Borage

Parsley

Oregano

Garlic

Chives

Marigolds

Hybrid tomato

Roma tomato

Another kind of tomato

CA Wonder Bell Pepper

Red bell pepper

Pepperoncini

Poblano pepper

Jalapeno

Habanero

SALSA GARDEN II-single row of tomatoes and each herb, except two of basil

Basil

Tarragon

Lovage

Borage

Parsley

Oregano

Garlic

Chives

Marigolds

Beefsteak tomato

Red Cherry tomatoes

Another kind of tomato

Red Pepper

Sweet red pepper

Banana pepper

Carnival color mix peppers

CARROTS-Rows of each

Carrots

Onions (with Chamomile)

Garlic

Chives

Rosemary (inside, not on borders)

Marigolds

Lovage

Borage

Tarragon

PUMPKINS-pumpkins at wide side with long rows of M,T,B,L, herbs in rows where it narrows

Giant pumpkins

Terragon

Borage

Lovage

Cummin

Horehound

Anise

Chamomile

Burnet

THREE SISTERS-3 rows of corn with green beans and squash trellised by corn

Corn

Pole Beans

Garden Beans

Zucchini

PLANTER-Stuff that is already there

Blueberries

Evergreen hedge

Trees

BUTTERFLY/MEDITATION GARDEN

Orange Bling Hybrid Impatiens

Blue Balloon Flower

Chinese Lantern

Pansy

Viola King Henry

Camellia-Flower Balsam

White Baby Impatiens

Alyssum

Zinnia

Blue Forget-Me-Not

Cleome

Foxy Foxglove

African Daisy

Cosmos

Sunflowers

WALKWAY

Wildflowers