Harvest!

The radishes and lettuce with the carrots on the left.


And here's the first radish from the garden!

Progress report 4-10

Here are the radishes with four lettuce plants in the square above them. You can also see some transplanted radish plants to the left—except for the bean seeds, I planted at least two seeds in each hole hardly believing they would actually sprout.


Here are bush beans, with cucumbers to the far left.

New perspective

I'm amazed at how differently I interpret things after only a few weeks of gardening. The topic of seeds is particularly at front of mind right now. My seeds have actually sprouted! I am just amazed. Many before me have been amazed and have written eloquently about that amazement. And I've been amazed before, but I am amazed all over again.

I've read Genesis 1:11-12 many times. But I had never particularly delved into the importance placed on seed. It's the vegetation's ability to yield seed that is emphasized through repetition. It's not just "plants and trees" but "plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed."

In contrast, today's WSJ "The Evening Wrap," (paid subscription required) by Mark Gongloff (whose clever presentation of the day's business news I've come to enjoy, not least of which is because its arrival in my e-mail inbox signals that it is soon time to leave work for home), gave this news about Monsanto:

Monsanto said it earned $440 million in its fiscal second quarter, up 18% from a year ago. The maker of seeds, Roundup herbicide and other farm products said its sales rose 15% to $2.2 billion.

However one might interpret Genesis chapter one, calling Monsanto a "maker of seeds" struck me as just wrong! Plants yield their seed, not Monsanto!

I probably would have just skimmed over the mention of seeds had I read these two items without the experience of watching my seeds sprout during these past days.

Chard

I now have little sprouts of chard, carrots, lettuce, beans, and peas. Not many, but some. The radishes are one and a half to two inches high. It rained earlier this week and last night into this morning. The sun is coming and going right now.

You can already see the hint of red in the chard. Hopefully, one day these tiny plants will look like this gorgeous picture taken by Kerstin.