I have been very, very thankful this year for mulch. Sounds like an interesting thing to be thankful for, but I am. Let me explain.
I LOVE to have a garden. I LOVE to have flowers blooming around the yard. I just LOVE the outdoors and the beauty that comes from seeing nature in its course.
But I HATE weeds and the process of weeding. It seems that spring comes with the delight of things popping up ready to grow. I can recognize the plants as they peek through the surface. I don’t have to water them thanks to the winter moisture and spring rains. It is just such an enjoyable time to be a gardener.
And then something happens. Overnight, the whole yard is flooded with weeds. And they never seem to be small weeds. I honestly find myself every year looking out at the yard thinking “how in the world did I not see this coming?”.
Well, a couple years ago I wanted a push mower– for two reasons…1. so I could bag the grass clippings and use them as mulch and 2. for exercise in the process. So, we bagged grass clippings and put newspaper down with the clippings on the top. And that helped with the weeds all over the yard…EXCEPT in the places where the grass clippings didn’t cover the ground or where the wind shifted the covering.
This year…MULCH! Deep mulch! It has been something that I frequently look out the window and appreciate this year. It has saved me A LOT of time and energy. During the rainy spring and early summer it held the soil in place preventing the typical erosion problem we have in our vegetable garden (it’s on a slightly angled hill). And, it held in moisture…which was great once the rain stopped and we had a dry spell for 6-8 weeks. The ground was still moist under that mulch. And things were still growing just fine as a result.
Notice…I haven’t mentioned the need for me to be weeding (or watering). That’s right! I didn’t have to…except for a stray thing here or there. Definitely not the dreaded backbreaking, sweat drawing (that only seems to get done on the hottest day at the hottest time of the day) kind of work.
Deep mulch!
Try it…
The old cliché is worthwhile here…
“You’ll be glad you did!”
(Now…fast forward a week or two…)
When I recently was out in the garden working among the mulch, I got to thinking about the benefits of mulch. It covers the ground. It prevents or hinders the growth of what I don’t want growing while allowing the desired growth to have what it needs. That is amazing when I really stop and think about it.
But…what if I pulled that mulch back? I guarantee there would be things happy to start growing. Why? Because of light.
This is where I started seeing the spiritual connection to mulch. Light is crucial for growth. Light provides the beginnings of the self-feeding process for a plant to grow and sustain itself.
I don’t want weeds growing from that light. But I do want my plants growing by using that light. So…the mulch becomes a blanket of protection around that plant allowing it to hold in the moisture it needs and preventing the competition for nutrients from weeds.
Jesus…the Light…provides growth and life sustaining food. If I allow too many other things (weeds) to crowd out my life, I can’t focus on growing more like Jesus. Yet, in His loving-kindness, He provides mulch! He provides a blanket of protection for me. He wants to help prevent the weeds so I can grow. He wants to focus the light onto one thing so it can fully grow…healthy and strong.
And so I realize…it is up to me to determine whether it’s a deep mulch (fully blanketing the areas of my life), a shallow grass clipping mulch (prone to be blown off by the winds of life), or no mulch at all (creating mounds of extra work or simply allowing life to be crowded or consumed by weeds).
So, the question becomes…where do I need mulch in my life? What areas are being crowded out by things I really don’t want or need in my life? What areas are being overtaken because I just let them be overtaken and unattended? What areas need some attention so the weeds can be removed and the deep mulch of protection can be added?
Pulling weeds can be overwhelming. Pulling weeds can be tiring. Pulling weeds can be time consuming. Pulling weeds can be inconvenient. Even when I mulch them, weeds still make it through. Regular weeding is necessary (and easier in the long run). But once the weeds are pulled…it sure is beautiful!