The Growing Season

This was the wettest Utah spring in at least 100 years (or something like that). It seems that all our prayers for rain were answered all at once. The flood waters didn't reach our house, but we watched anxiously as the Provo River rose and the canals filled up. With all the rain it seems like it took Summer forever to finally arrive and it is shocking that with only a few slip n' slide afternoons under our belt back to school sales are already in full swing. At the end of every storm there is a rainbow however, and we've had several radiant sightings.

This was not the year, as I had hoped, that my garden would thrive. I can't blame it all on the weather, my lack of attention is mostly to blame, but we did get some late snows. Thank goodness for Bountiful Baskets each week. The scouts have been doing their community service with the co-op so Dave or I have spent many a Saturday sorting fruits and veggies with them and enjoying someone else's harvest.

Although our garden is pathetic we have two agricultural successes:

#1. Our lawn: This is where I bear my testimony of soil testing. We finally have a lawn where the grass exceeds the weeds and bald spots. It may seem like a silly thing, but I can't tell you how happy it makes me to at last walk across it bare-footed, that my kids want to play in our yard and not just the neighbors, and that I can look out and see green.

#2. Raspberries: This is the year we finally have enough berries that we can't eat them all as we stand around picking them. Reaching into the thorny patch, the prickle, and the scent, remind me of hours spent picking and eating in the patch behind the blue house with Jessica, in Suzi's backyard, and Summer's celebrating Raspberry Days in Bear Lake with Marci: a sweet taste and sweet memories. I also love that raspberries come back every year with so little effort--the perfect crop in my mind.