My attempt to document the planting, growth, harvesting, and preserving of our family’s 8000 square feet of garden.
Northeast Iowa Gardening in growing zone 4
Last frost date May15, First frost date September 15
If I could choose when to invite you over for a garden tour it would be middle of June! We would admire the lilies and hollyhocks while the hummingbirds and Baltimore orioles’ flit around, waiting for us to admire their fledglings. We would pick a few remaining strawberries to snack on as we wander to the main garden. There we would snack on peas while we load up our baskets with Lettuce, onions, cucumbers, broccoli, and we might even dig a few early potatoes before we wander back to the house to prepare a feast of homegrown goodness.
We smelled it the minute we stepped out of the car after our trip to the Seed to Spoon Summit in Ohio. Elvin and I exchanged a look, we both knew. Herbicide season had arrived in Iowa while we were out of town. When thousands of acers are getting treated all around the countryside it doesn’t matter if our neighbors sprayed under perfectly regulated conditions. Herbicide Vapor can travel for up to 7 miles and still be moving around 24 to 72 hours after application.
I was prepared for what I’d find when I walked into the garden. After all, I’ve spent 25 years gardening in this area, so I’m no stranger to herbicide vapor and drift. The big change is that, nowadays, people understand what I mean when I mention it. Previously, I recognized herbicide damage, but whenever I mentioned it, people reacted with confusion, as if I were imagining things. However, since Glyphosate has been featured in the news more often over the past few years, awareness of the issue has grown. Now, many are willing to acknowledge that the experiences in my garden and orchard are genuine, and I’m not just a gardener clinging to a conspiracy theory.
I have included some photos the visible damage to the garden.
As I got on my hands and knees to pull some weeds, I started crying and then praying. After a while my weed bucket was full, I got up and walked the perimeter of our land, praying God’s protecting and healing power over the 20 acres that include our pastures, pig pens, chicken coops, pond, garden, yard and house. As I walked and prayed my heart gradually shifted, from being filled with anger and frustration to embracing humility and growth.
When I first started walking and praying my heart posture was purely human nature and I wanted to make a big fuss. I felt like a child whose favorite toy got broken or was unfairly treated, and maybe if I cried loud enough someone would fix the problem and put my world right side up again. I wanted vengeance, I wanted someone to pay for ruining my favorite toy.
The longer I walked and prayed and cried the more God started working on my heart posture:
Who cares? Well, no one cares as much about raising healthy crops from our little corner of land as I do. If I make a big fuss, I am still only a small drop in a big ocean.
So, then I am all alone, Isolated. Because no one that could make a difference care about our measly 20acres.
If I don’t make a fuss than no one will know how upsetting and wrong this whole thing is!
My chest started feeling tight, my breaths became shorter, my heart started racing and my throat burned.
“It’s the Herbicides making me sick,” I thought, “I’ve got to get back to the house.”
“I must shut all the windows and bring the family indoors.”
As I started back to the house in a feverish state, I recognized my symptoms for what they really were. A panic attack.
Deep breaths and prayer, lots more prayer.
And then I started leaning into what I know to be true about God.
The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. Psalms 24:1
God knows and sees what is happening to His earth, and He knows and sees and cares what is happening on my tiny corner of His earth. I don’t have to yell and scream to get His attention. I already have His full attention. And his complete love too. He already knew that I would be disappointed, and He cares enough to want to hear all about it. Because it’s through the prayer of telling him how disappointed I am that my heart begins to align with His.
And when our hearts align with our father’s then we catch a glimpse of his great vision for His creation. What is it that God cares more about than the purity of his Earth? The People! God cares more about the hearts of His people. I know he is grieved when we are not good stewards of the earth, but I am certain that He is even more grieved when we are not good stewards of the soil of our hearts which are eternal.
And so, because I know little ole me, on 20 acers, is powerless to stop the evil by clamoring in indignation, I will do what I know is within my power, I will pray for the healing of the land and the people that dwell in it, and I will focus on the soil of my heart more than I focus on the soil of my garden. I know that God in His goodness can heal the land through soil microbiome that we have been faithful in building over the last 25 years. I know that God says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
What good thing can God grow out of the soil of my heart? The longer I walked and prayed the more aware I became of how contaminated the soil of my heart was and how twisted and ugly some of the fruit I was producing was. By the time I had circled back to the garden my Joy had returned, and as I pulled weeds, I was praising God for using something that the enemy meant for evil to bring about more fertile heart soil that will grow better fruit and has the potential for leaving an eternal legacy.
Pouring bitterness, unforgiveness and fear onto the soil of my heart does more damage to mine and my family’s health than the herbicides that are floating around me as I sit on the patio typing this. I am not naive about the negative effects of these dangerous herbicides, I have been actively trying to shield my family from them best I know how for the last 20 years, this week’s frustrating experience was simply a reminder to be more focused on the health of my eternal soul than I am focused on the health of my mortal body.
Watch for Saturday’s YouTube video on how we help our plants recover from the effects of herbicide drift or vapor.
