Fifteen.

Today, under a bright warm sun, the kids picked the first zucchinis from our garden. It only took a few seconds to pull them off the plant, but watching the kids amazement made all the preparation, building, shoveling, wheelbarrowing, seeding, and watering worth it. We’ve dedicated a lot of time, and physical labor to our garden and the kids have watched on with anticipation as tiny sprouts became bigger and bigger. Today, they got to experience the benefits and joy of hard work by holding something they helped grow turn into something we can eat. It’s been such a meaningful experience for each of us to watch a bare piece of land be built in to so much more.

Behind our picket fence, there are boxes that are totally bare because the soil is wrong. Other boxes are overflowing with more than we know what to do with. And others have sprouts just starting to poke up from the ground. Every box has required work, but every box is different. Some are destroyed, some are thriving, and some are just starting. What a representation of our lives! Sometimes life feels filled with moments of abundance, where the hard work seems worth it. Other times the hard stuff in life leaves us feeling empty. And then there are the times of fresh beginnings when we feel like we can actually breathe again.

We’re still pretty clueless about gardening and have a long ways to go before we have a truly successful garden, but the lessons we’ve learned in the first year of our garden will stick with us as we continue to work side by side to make our garden and family grow.