Sierra V. Fedorko

The June Garden, 2023

Heidi’s flowerbed has easily been my favorite part of Green Fables this season. When spring felt like it came so late, I didn’t think I’d get to experience that spring burst of color. We had to wait until late April to plant, and it was such a letdown. If I couldn’t get my seeds in the ground NOW–or at the very least–SOON, then what could bloom? Sure, I had the roses, but spring was “late”, and there’s so much more spring I wanted.

Well, well, well.

Since January, Heid’s flowerbed has had some kind of orange or yellow daisy blooming. BLOOMING. And that has only somersaulted into a spring show I couldn’t have put together on my own!

Everything that has burst to the scene (aside from the few zinnias growing and the mum planted from pot to bed) has done so in its own wildflower way. It’s stuff we planted in the days before I gave birth to Heidi in 2022. It’s stuff I don’t even remember planting but maybe threw in at one point during the late summer or early fall last year. But who knows!! (Not me, haha!)

The point is, Heidi’s flowerbed has just been one long surprise in the best way.

Let me tell you, though, some of the things just now blooming felt like overgrown weeds. I’ve watched green stems get bigger and bigger with hardly anything to show for it. On and on these green things grew, but how they seemed like weeds! I already don’t know much about flowers and only remember for sure planting a box of butterfly-attracting wildflowers last year, so the chance of these green, leafy things just being weeds is pretty high.

But–

Experience has taught me not to pull the weeds. Or rather, the things that look and seem like weeds.

Since I’m no flower expert, I’ve learned to let thing go and grow. I’ve pulled some things much too soon, and I’ve been surprised by the best things too many times to swipe through my flowerbeds pulling at “weeds.” Was I tempted to pull up these leafy greens things? Yes. I even pulled out at least one to make room for zinnias because I had seen nothing come of this tall, leafy green thing and had no idea if anything would. It just kept getting bigger and taller and wider and had been growing since this March! Where was the “real” progress! Where was the flowering part?! Nowhere, that’s where. When do I pull this thing?!

But two weeks ago, I noticed buds on the longest stem…finally. Still it seemed nothing would really come of it. And then last week, a beautiful deep purple flower bloomed. Soon the rest of that tall thing will be flowering in deep purple as well. My other weed-like question marks have also finally bloomed in bright yellow and white flowers. I am here for the show!! I waited it out! It took weeks, months! Questions! Don’t pull the weeds!!!

Or, at least, the ones in the flowerbed that could be something good and probably are if you just wait since you did plant seeds in there after all. (Also, maybe consider WRITING DOWN WHAT YOU PLANT & WHEN…😅…but where’s the fun in that?!)

In the garden, 9 times out of 10, the tall, leafy, green thing is going to flower. In the heart drawing near to God, 10 times out of 10, the tall, leafy, green thing that grows and grows, on and on, is going to flower(!!!). And you’re going to be glad you stayed the course and didn’t pull at your growth by the roots before God ushered in the blooming season.

Still if you’re sitting in the middle of a flowerbed you decimated because you’re so tired, and you’re so tired of waiting–in fact, you’re discouraged in soul and spirit–I’ll remind you that you’re still in the garden. YOU’RE STILL IN THE GARDEN. And 10 times out of 10, the heart drawing near to God can bloom after decimation! It’s not over.

I’ve learned the garden doesn’t count on me to grow. I may plant seeds and water, (in fact I should) but I can’t make the sun shine. I can’t make it rain. I can’t make the seeds into seeds. Or water into water. I can’t force the seeds to work or make the flowers bloom in the timeline of “my” spring. I really can’t do anything, except wait…and marvel at what God does, remember the history of good and blooming things, keep my hands quiet, and stay in it. The thing I want to pull is probably a flower in God’s time. Not mine. Never in mine.

As you go about your life, remember that the tall, leafy, seemingly-going-nowhere green thing is going to flower…

9 times out of 10 in the garden.

10 times out of 10 in your heart.

Stay the course. 

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P.s. After I wrote this down there was some further reflection and tiny amounts of research of which I realized the “tall, leafy thing” MUST be a hollyhock. My mother-in-law has given them to us in the past, and we MUST have planted late summer/early fall after our trip up north when I fell in love with her hollyhocks. I just don’t specifically remember planting them but I KINDA do and KINDA remember talking with Ben about it...bettter now than never or something like that.😍 Regardless, I’m so glad we did, so glad I waited it out, and I might (*MIGHT*, but probably, definitely won’t) write a few more things down now.

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