I have been working away in my yard, specifically at my garden beds in the back yard. What was once brambles, junk trees and ivy has been beaten back. There is a large sunny area where two large pine trees were taken down during the pandemic. It is perfect for some container gardens. However, because of Ken’s cancer and then my own, I didn’t get a lot done in terms of pulling weeds or caring for my yard over the last two years. The wild things grew like crazy!!

After I did several weeks of bushwhacking and clearing, I planted a few store-bought plants because some of my seedlings did not germinate. When I was shopping for them, I spotted some rhubarb crowns in pots. The first ones I looked at were wimpy and not looking great. Next to them were some healthier ones with red stems already showing. GREAT! So I bought them!

Except… they were rainbow chard. And I didn’t discover that until they were in the ground and I was checking on their weeks to maturity.

I don’t really like rainbow chard that much. Scratch that. I don’t like it at all! And it will be just my luck that they will take off like zucchinis so that I have enough to feed my whole church. (Fair warning, friends…)

So I laughed at myself and watered them anyway, and I thought about how things that happen by chance can turn out to be OK in the end. SOMEONE (not me) will have abundant rainbow chard on their dinner table. SOMEONE will watch me give myself grace… and move on from a mistake. As my dad used to say that the “11th Commandment” was “Thou shalt not take thyself so damn seriously.”

I found rhubarb starts at a different gardening center and put them in the ground yesterday. Lord willing, they will grow and spread and I’ll have rhubarb every year, which is, quite honestly, much more appealing to me than rainbow chard!

I’m sure I’ll have more interesting mistakes in gardening, but as every gardener knows, trying to grow your own produce and flowers is a humbling experience. I’ll keep you posted.