Sweet Potato Slips and Lupine

It seems that I would be posting the same few pictures of the same SOP (Standard Operating Procedure).  This bed of Sweet Potatoes began the same as the other beds, cardboard on the grass, soil, manure and then we used a stick to poke holes in through the soil (and cardboard) and put the Sweet Potato slips (Johnny's Selected Seeds) into the holes, filled them with water and then covered them with soil. And now we wait.

Again, it's just the beginning. But I can look out the window into a yard that fills more and more each day with green...what a beginning it is!

We used the log near the "dry" river bed

Lupine starting to grow

Around the fruit trees we have Vetch, Nasturtium, Clover, and a perennial Lupine.  Today is the first time Lupine appeared! All of these plants are meant to feed the soil, keep moisture near the ground for the fruit trees and attract good insects for pest control and pollination. Oh - the Nasturtium is also completely edible, stems, leaves, and flowers. So we'll have lots of greens until next year when we let the fruit grow =)

Promise.

I would spend the entire day sitting and watching things grow

nature does the most amazing magic - flowers appear overnight and seeds germinate in days

and all we can do, really, is promise not to miss it or take it for granted.

The Chive, Marigolds and Blue Poppy seeds are pushing through the soil, 

the peas are growing like crazy and the Clover is sprouting in rings around the fruit trees - 

which are already showing signs of green. 

Like every year since we moved in, the violets take over every space they can. 

They just volunteer to be here and line the driveway and fences and 

pop up randomly in the yard.

In what seems like minutes - all of this happens, and I am changed.

Every time I go away and forget, and then come back and am amazed again. 

If only I could call these miracles to mind when I am in difficult situations, 

so I can hold to my promise...

this is my life's work.