Was your gardening adventure this year a successful one?  Did you get an abundance of harvest and could store up good measure for winter?  Are you already dreaming for next year? 

Me?  Well, let's just say this year wasn't what I was expecting...

Tending a large garden located 3 miles from home while in a cast for the majority of the summer, with only one foot usable, mandatory crutches, and having the inability to drive due to said broken foot was a bit more challenging than I imagined. 

Mind you, I do have amazing friends who had put a lot of hard work into my garden, providing, planting and watering!  And, they were amazing and always harvesting my garden's produce AND delivering it straight to my doorstep, about every other day!  And, I had amazing Leslie keeping an eye on my zucchini plants that, thanks to her, produced more zucchini then we could keep up with!  (Wow, did I mention I have amazing friends?)  

I did get dropped off at the garden every two weeks to weed, but it was never enough.  Crawling around on my hands and knees through the weeds was a chore, the crutches were always getting stuck in something causing me stumble, and the weeds were merciless, they never stopped growing.  For my part, in all honesty, I did squat.

BUT I did get a harvest!  We ate amazing green salads, juicy sweet peas, crisp beans, and mounds of cauliflower and broccoli.  We made salsa, salsa, and more salsa, and ratatouie and breads and lasagnas and zucchini, zucchini and more zucchini and now have a huge stash of onions and 5 adorable winter squash to boot.  And that doesn't even count the produce that was eaten by the bunnies or taken by others!  

Was it "worth" it to have a garden this summer?  Keeping the garden with a broken foot may not have been one of my brightest ideas ever.  Looking back to my first year gardening, I was continually seeing the relationships between God and man through all the organic growth around me.  Now looking back on my recent summer of gardening, I can see anew God's grace in action not only in that I did squat and yet reaped a harvest, but also in that I can never repay my friends for their loving sacrifices to me this summer, I simply have the choice to accept it or ignore it.

However, I think my husband is right in saying that if I break my foot again, I can't have an off site garden.  (I am also praying I never break my foot again.)