Altar Call – Opelika-Auburn News
Walter Albritton
May 4, 2008
Gardening is more fun when friends and family help the
gardener
Gardening
is fun. Growing vegetables and flowers gives me a sense of working with God. My
role is small – planting seeds, weeding, and tending young plants. God’s role
is big. He provides the dirt, sunshine, and rain.
Men can
make plastic but only God can make dirt. And God’s dirt is something else. It
has stuff in it that makes things grow, mainly nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Nitrogen
helps plants to grow, to be healthy, and to produce protein. Phosphorus helps
plants grow strong roots. Potassium helps plants grow strong stalks in the same
way that calcium strengthens our bones.
Of course
some dirt needs our help to get the right combination of these ingredients.
That is why people manufacture and sell fertilizer.
My friend
Laura, quite a gardener herself, reminded me of all this after reading about
the way our squash is growing in the ash heap. Evidently the main ingredient in
the ashes is none other than potassium or potash.
Laura first
learned about the power of the ashes in
God knew we
would need potash so he made a lot of it. In fact, potash or potassium is the
seventh most abundant element in the earth’s crust. It is found in every cell
in plants and animals. Without it growth would be impossible.
Potassium,
like phosphate, is mined for use in industry and agriculture. My father’s first
job was in a
Laura is
not surprised that our squash are growing beautifully in the ash pile. But she
doubts even potash can grow a 30-pound cabbage. Time will tell. If I grow one,
she wants to be on hand to witness the harvesting. That will be fine. She can
help me load it on my pickup.
On Laura’s
advice I ditched my plan to buy another Knockout Rose bush. I plan to follow
her advice and root my own as she did last February. She says Knockout Roses
are quite easy to root by planting healthy stems at the time of the February
pruning. That should save me a few bucks to help with my astonishing gasoline
bill.
Gardening
is fun but it is even more fun when good friends assist with the gardening. I
welcome all the helpful hints I can get. Good advice will help my garden grow.
Can gardening be a team sport? Perhaps
it can. I doubt that I would have a garden were it not a family project. It
would be difficult to fight those weeds alone. But with the help of Tim, Sarah,
and Dean, it has become a delightful way to sweat in the springtime.
By the way, I have yet another surprise
for Sarah. This week I planted some “Jack and the Bean Stalk” seed. I can’t
wait to see how tall they will grow. Imagine a bean stalk twelve feet tall, a
30 pound cabbage, and a 40 pound cantaloupe! What fun it is to help and watch
things grow! + + +