Oh, my babies...
Every year, at this time of year, I have more babies than I can count. Plant babies that is. Thousands of plants that are just waiting to be transplanted into their new home. Tomatoes, peppers, sugar snap peas, greens! What a delight to be able to see them change from a little seed, to a baby seedling and honestly now, into teenagers ready to explore their roots into a new soil...a new home. Sadly because of covid-19, only a few of my babies have a home waiting for them. Although we had thought we may have land for them, things take longer to happen this year. The backyards offered to us in this time have been so wonderful, but the space is just not enough to house everything.
It seems like we are all in a waiting pattern. We are waiting to see how long it will take until children go back to school, until businesses reopen, until we are able to see loved ones that we haven't seen since March. And we at Sparrow Gardens are waiting to see when we will be able to have new land.
This time of waiting can be a beautiful thing though. We are able to slow down and notice things we may not have noticed since we were children. The clouds passing, the birds' songs, the plants growing. We are able to connect with our immediate family in ways that perhaps the busyness of life never allowed us to have before.
But these plants can't wait for us to have land. They continue to grow on. We have come to the decision to sell these babies that I have cared for since the beginning of March. We are hoping they will delight many of you who have a backyard, balcony or a pot who will enjoy the process of growing food or flowers...perhaps even for the first time! You can watch them grow and put on flowers and fruit. You can enjoy the bounty this year.
Knowing that these seedlings will give joy to others makes the process of starting and raising them worth it. And this year, instead of being busy at the farm I will get a chance to spend more time with my two actual babies who are now teenagers and have been growing up so fast. I will seize this opportunity to pour into them before they are all grown up and find their new home.
Keep safe and take this time to really slow down and enjoy the beauty around us. We know at some point in time, all this waiting will be over and we will be back to the rush of life.
(Below is a picture of some of our sugar snap peas basking in the setting sun.)
