Garden Resilience

I realized that today is July 6 so while I know I already posted once today, I had to share with you what a difference a month makes.  A month ago today, I was out of town and Cory was trying to sop up water that was streaming in through our (closed!) windows at midnight during the most intense storm we’d experienced while living in Highlands Ranch.

There was plenty of damage to the whole neighborhood, our home included, and in light of all the devastation from the wildfires, having to get a new roof and some other stuff is no big deal at all.

I will admit that I was bummed about our garden though.  As you may recall from last year, our first attempt at a garden didn’t go so well.  This year, Cory started a bunch of seedlings indoors in the spring.  We had a wonderfully warm May so we planted the seedlings and within 3 hours they all wilted and died in the heat (we later found out that we need to ACCLIMATE our poor seedlings – now we know!)  We replanted seeds, this time in the garden, willy-nilly because we just wanted to see if stuff would grow and it did!  Basil, cilantro, Tuscan kale, green onions, zucchini…  everything came up from seeds on our second go-round.

And then the hail hit.

I thought for sure our garden was done for.

Since I didn’t have a ‘before pic’ of our garden, here’s what happened to the roses to give you an idea.

But these plants are tough little cookies!  Look at it today, a month later:

Wahooo!  We even have baby zucchini growing, which is a big improvement from last year!

I don’t know why but I love the feeling of hope this little garden gives me.  It just seems like a great thing to think about when we feel beaten down at times in life, or maybe bullied by stress/circumstance – just dig deeper and hang on, time will pass, and the sun WILL come out!

– Shari B. =)