This spring has been filled with planting. I feel as though most of my time has been spent on things that won't bear fruit for several years. The most obvious of those is the yard. Last fall, with the help of some guys with strong backs and a few friends who wanted to give plants a new home, almost every plant in the yard was either relocated or sent to become compost for the city. Practically the whole lot was then covered with newspaper and/or cardboard and LOTS of leaves to smother the weeds and anything else that might grow. In the meantime, a talented landscape lady drew up some plans so that the yard can one day be low-maintenance, lovely and also produce more stuff to eat.
Now that spring is here it is time to begin making those drawings a reality. So far there are some new flowers, a couple of hedges,4 blueberry and 4 huckleberry bushes, a fig tree, a plum tree, a quince and 6 dwarf apple trees. There is still a CRAZY amount of planting that needs to happen in the coming month and in the years to come, but it is starting to take shape. However it will be a couple of years before any actual harvest happens. In the meantime, there have been some lovely surprises. Not everything got smothered as planned. There were some persistent bulbs that wouldn't be discouraged by a few layers of cardboard and a foot and a half of leaves. So, much to my surprise, there were some hyacinths and tulips and daffodils - quite the Easter lesson. Even in a yard filled with rotting leaves, bursts of color happen, spring happens, Life happens.
At the same time, I have spent hours in meetings planning and dreaming and hoping as we work to plant the metaphorical seeds so that the campus ministry can become self sustaining. That project will also take some time before we see results - fall 2012 is the goal.
So, we plant, and we water (sometimes with sweat, sometimes with tears), and we hope and we wait - and in the meantime, I'm keeping my eyes peeled for signs of Easter hope.
