Birthday Fruit Garden

One of the coolest things I have ever seen in a natural health series was a gorgeous, simple garden throughout a suburban backyard, including various fruit trees into the landscape and I loved it! All of the beautiful food he grew, was served in their home and they were super healthy! That was how my grandparents did it, and that been the master plan since we moved in, part of why I went through the Master Gardener program and have dozens of gardening books! I have taken my time to study our suburban yard and really try to think through what goes where and I have tried, failed, moved plants, changed it, learned and grown! Failure is part of the process of learning and life!

The lovely Miss Hannah met Emily and they picked it up and brought it home!

As I stood there, deciding which trees to buy, I was overwhelmed by God’s goodness in providing such a beautiful bounty at an incredible price!! I thought of my grandmothers mini orchard and the boxes of fresh, delicious fruit she would bring over on hot summer days! And I thought of space, and tried to pretend I could be realistic – and not just go nuts buying everything! Decisions!

Tennessee and Chattanooga in particular, can grow a wide array of plants. I know the world is currently stuck on certain trends food wise, and I don’t really care. I am a Gen 1:29 girl, Then God said, “Behold, I have given you EVERY plant yielding seed that is on the surface of ALL the earth and every tree which has fruit yielding seed, it shall be food for you!” I take that seriously – He has given us a beautiful bounty of food in plants! We got blueberries, peaches, nectarine, Honeycrisp apples, a pear and a persimmon and an olive tree! Can you even believe it!? All from a farm just less than 100 miles away in TN! They should all grow well here, and I am excited and a bit terrified to start this orchard phase. But I know that God has provided this bounty, at this moment and it was part of my overall plan, so why not be brave and GO for it?

Somehow, I think my grandparents, both sides, would be happy to know that their granddaughter and great granddaughter are cultivating the land, building soil and producing food! And wayyyyyy back, the great/greats had farms. It is a beautiful family inheritance that we are reproducing on this side of the globe, just like they did as they moved and lived their lives out and did the best they could, where God planted them! They were resourceful and grew their own food and lived to ripe, old ages!

And then the girls came home, we made Shrimp and Grits, our own version of Chantilly Cake with tons of fruit and played Nertz and talked! Tons of messages and well wishes and blessings! What a fun birthday!!! I am truly blessed!!!!