What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow. ~ Martin Luther

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Cha-CHING!


It has been a positively DELIGHTFUL day, this fine sunny Saturday.

We heartily ate cinnamon buns, straight from the oven , when we awoke and then MINUTES later, I left! :-) (But the absence of my family is NOT why it has been delightful!) This morning the gardeners of the church gathered together and exchanged perennials, wit and wisdom as they do, apparently, ever year in spring.

Matt stayed home with the children for the two hours I was gone and while he was working on his deerhide with children in tow, the empty Panda spaces in my arms were promptly filled with a plethora of flowers.

I didn't have perennials to share but I am not a 'come empty-handed' type of gal, so I headed to the greenhouse and bought two flats of Alyssum at .99cents a piece. I felt like I had even just a SMALL contribution and it made me feel better.

I got more than 15 different plants-for FREE. I don't even KNOW what some of them are (out comes my Garden Plants Encyclopedia!!!) but that doesn't lessen my excitement. Here is a list of some of the plants that I KNOW.

*Lily of the Valley
*Coral Bells
*Tiger Lilies
*Day Lilies
*Lemon Balm
*Bee Balm
*Miniature Lilac
*Rasberry bush
*Snapdragons
*Oregano
*Large Burgendy Iris
*Siberian Iris (small and purple)
*Rose
*Larkspur
*Bleeding hearts
*Gooseberry Longneck something or other :-)

There are about five more that I don't know about. Can you BELIEVE it? Is that not just a POT OF GOLD?!?!

A *little* bit of me is a tad bit sad at the whole ordeal. Instead of being able to do any landscaping with them (as I would have loved to do!) I will get to enjoy them in pots. I just don't want to permenantly plant them in the ground and then leave them when we move in the coming months... It makes me sad to not be established anywhere. Again. I do so LONG to put down roots.

I am trying to push that bit of grumbling down and instead focus on the great blessing of it all. I am just so thankful that their are women (and men) who willingly and happily share their time, expertise, and their means for the furtherance of others. I have seen it time and time again at this church.

I must say, this church has many gifts that I haven't witnessed in a church in years. They really are a FAMILY. They do SO much together, are so ACTIVELY a part of one anothers' lives. Definately NOT the 'Hi on Sunday' type crowd. If ever we can no longer be a part of this family, I will leave with them a piece of my heart.

Anyway. Just thought I would share my happy news. I just finished potting ALL of those plants! Phew-was THAT a job! But a GOOD one! ;-)

If you are interested in gardening or would like to BECOME interested in gardening; perhaps you're garden is bare but you can't afford anything more-or maybe the Oregano NEEDS to be thinned out for the sake of your other plants...I would encourage you to set up a perennial exchange in your church or community. I know of people who set something like this up on Freecycle and barter cycle too!

It really is a FANTASTIC thing.

6 comments:

Kelli said...

Oh, that is just wonderful, Rebecca! Reading your list of flowers was exciting...Lily of the Valley...Bleeding hearts! I know you are anxious to get into a permanent home but I thought of a plus to having your new flowers in pots for awhile. You will be able to see what particular flowers prefer...sun/vs. shade, etc. then keep moving the pots around until you find what they like. Some of my flowers are extremely picky but are hard to move around and experiement with.
I can't wait to see all your pretty flowers!
Hugs,
Kelli

smilnsigh said...

Wonderful that you got all those plants! And a wonderful idea it is too. A perennial exchange.

And also wonderful that I can now comment here. I was bopping around in pretty blog land, this afternoon. Went from one to another. Came here to yours and tried to Comment and.... I got a you are blocked message! Eeeek! Went to another blog and got the same. Double eeeeeeeek!

But the *Google Hissy Fit* seems to be over, as I can access my own blog and comment in yours. Hooray!

Yish! I'm too old for this kind of Net *hissy fits*! -giggles-

Mari-Nanci

Anonymous said...

How exciting to have all those plants! That is a grand idea to have an exchange. And YAY! You got some daylilies! I work one day a week doing the books at a daylily farm & I am partial to them. They are such a beautiful flower! =)
Hope you had a wonderful Lord's day!
Victoria =)

Christine said...

Good for you, Rebecca! Thank you for the great idea of a flower exchange.

Abigail said...

Very cool! Since you know about the tulips and poppies, let it be known that lilies and lilacs are also among my favorites.

Rebecca said...

That is a very good point, Kelli. I didn't really think of that!

Victoria~A daylily farm? I can't imagine how GORGEOUS that would be-a whole farm of flowers! Neato.

Abby~Do you have a particular lily you like? The side of the road leading to our house has thousands of tiger lilies-in the summer we cut our fair share...okay-more than our fair share. We're GREEDy. I ADMIT IT. OKAY!?!?