I have never in my 64 years on this earth quoted another aside from Scripture more than your wise words, Jessica that "We weren't made for a battlefield but for a Garden." This essay is yet another reaffirmation of that Truth.
Goodness, it’s like you’ve been in my head. I’m sure so many of us are feeling these feelings and thinking these thoughts. Sometimes I feel so alone but then I read articles like this. We’re all here, scattered about like seeds ready for those first sunshine days! Sowing seeds in our families and in those who are in our orbits. Thank you for sharing your beautiful words. 🌱
The house and land we've been renting for the past nine years, we've recently been told, that they would like to sell it, for a greedious price. But we can stay until it does... So, it's settled then, that the garden is still going in, as soon as the weather allows. Because in times of uncertainty, seeds might just be the small things that save the world from hunger, or despair. We might get to eat a little or a lot, someone else will also get to eat, nature will get to nibble on the crops. It really doesn't matter, so long as the plants feed our souls.
I believe that we are God's chosen generation to deal with what's coming. Of course nobody knows for sure but I have a pretty good idea I just wanted to give you a quote that is on my garden post.
To plant a seed means that you believe in the future. Love you Jess
I enjoy your writing so much, Jess. You are a warrior able to clearly and artfully document your struggles, your pain and your subjection to the whims of nature. Thank you for this lovely piece. 🌱
I went clamming yesterday and haven’t been in months (because it was a bitterly cold winter here on Cape Cod), but today woke up achey as hell. Not the screaming pain you experienced but still annoying. Over the last 2 days most of the snow has melted away and tomorrow I should be able to actually get to my garden! I will assess and start cleaning it up. I’ll take it slow, learning from your eagerness!
The world is crazy, no one can deny that! Affordability is slipping away and uncertainty reigns supreme, but the garden will definitely help on the multiple levels you just shared. Each seed I drop for my starts and soon directly sowed in the garden will be just a little more peace of mind. Gardening is resistance. As always thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts! 💕
We added 3 new beds this year because food prices are outrageous! With everything going on, I wonder if it will be enough? We have rabbits and groundhogs that visit our yard, along with the occasional deer. Squirrels have wrecked my garden in years past. I planted 76 bulbs of garlic and those little stinkers pulled up all 76 bulbs. I was able to save most of them as they are growing wild now. I'm sure their growth was stunted some. Live and learn. Still here I am trying my best to grow my garden despite the fact the squirrels wreck the garden beds and dig in my greenstalks. Ggrrr!! I have noticed they hate shiny pinwheel wind spinners and for now that has seemed to work.
Hope and faith grow in my gardens, both metaphorically and in the real.
I feel that this is true for most gardeners in general.
I'm pretty sure that two of my neighbors are onboard for starting gardens this season.
I have offered my experience and knowledge and it has been gratefully received.
The seven year old next door was my garden shadow last season. She wants to help with starting the seeds. My aged and gnarled hands will be so grateful for the intense way she places them so carefully in the grow pots.
That I am effecting a love of gradening feels delightfully subversive.
We will survive and thrive in spite of all of the crazy.
You make such an impact in so many lives. Thank you for your hope. Thank you for your guidance. It's grounding in a way little is. No over dramatization. No sound effects. Just life and truth and heart. Gob bless you Jess.
I've been teaching friends how to garden. I think most of them at this point see it as a hobby, thinking it will look like it doss on Pinterest. I hope soon they will start seeing it as a lifestyle, as a necessity, and as their victory. It is for me. I'm going into my 15th gardening season. It allows us to eat how we eat, to live how we live and to afford what we afford. If it wasn't for the garden, I'm not sure how we'd afford to live.. Thank you for your encouragement, Jess, I know I am not alone!
I keep putting off reading your posts. I keep telling myself I want to wait till later when I can really enjoy and soak up your words. (I definitely wish they were recorded so instead of my mind hearing you speak, I could listen to you.) I have only managed to make myself sit still for a few and each one makes my heart miss you all the more. Since I went back to work full time just shy of a year ago now, I have missed you. Even getting to see you again and meet your family 2 months ago, I have missed you. I have been struggling with whether or not I can handle growing a garden this year. If you recall, many of my posts last year were about how thankfully, though my poor garden suffered the vast absence of me, it proved how sturdy it is and enough flourished to make me sigh a small amount of relief that not all was lost and 'plants want to grow.' Now I'm coming up on another season and Spring is still teasing us here in CT. I long for the ability to garden as you do. I was starting to realize that before I had to go back to work and now it feels like a terrible tease. I didn't even have the strength or time to winterize my bed like I usually do. The pallets never made it to the garden. The cardboard never used. The leaves never spread over to mulch themselves. I'm wincing at the amount of weeds I will have to contend with soon and wondering if I have it in me to take on another season on top of work. It makes my heart absolutely sick to think I would be walking by it every day and not have anything planted but a bunch of dill, borage, cosmos and cherry tomatoes! (though those alone would be enough to fill my small space.) I should already have my pepper seeds planted and sprouted. I haven't even taken my seeds out yet. I had kitchen pipe issues for most of this month and it turned life on its head. I'm still trying to put everything to rights. All this above insanity to say; Thank you for still sharing. Thank you for not giving up on being here for us. Whether by video, podcast or the written word, you inspire and sooth. You give hope and help all of us feel like we've found our place. Part of me harbors just a shred of jealousy that you have so much of what I wish I could (honestly I want much smaller and simpler than what you have, but the general concept of my life revolving around my home and garden and family) but mostly, you bring me comfort and hope. That in and of itself is more valuable than even I realize most days. I remember just how much I value it when I read or see or hear you speak. Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU. From the utmost bottom to the highest top of my heart for all you give of yourself. You my darling, are priceless. Blessed Be Sowards Family! <3
I have never in my 64 years on this earth quoted another aside from Scripture more than your wise words, Jessica that "We weren't made for a battlefield but for a Garden." This essay is yet another reaffirmation of that Truth.
Goodness, it’s like you’ve been in my head. I’m sure so many of us are feeling these feelings and thinking these thoughts. Sometimes I feel so alone but then I read articles like this. We’re all here, scattered about like seeds ready for those first sunshine days! Sowing seeds in our families and in those who are in our orbits. Thank you for sharing your beautiful words. 🌱
The house and land we've been renting for the past nine years, we've recently been told, that they would like to sell it, for a greedious price. But we can stay until it does... So, it's settled then, that the garden is still going in, as soon as the weather allows. Because in times of uncertainty, seeds might just be the small things that save the world from hunger, or despair. We might get to eat a little or a lot, someone else will also get to eat, nature will get to nibble on the crops. It really doesn't matter, so long as the plants feed our souls.
Your words resonate. I'm with you 🤟🏼
I believe that we are God's chosen generation to deal with what's coming. Of course nobody knows for sure but I have a pretty good idea I just wanted to give you a quote that is on my garden post.
To plant a seed means that you believe in the future. Love you Jess
Just a fan 🪭
I enjoy your writing so much, Jess. You are a warrior able to clearly and artfully document your struggles, your pain and your subjection to the whims of nature. Thank you for this lovely piece. 🌱
I went clamming yesterday and haven’t been in months (because it was a bitterly cold winter here on Cape Cod), but today woke up achey as hell. Not the screaming pain you experienced but still annoying. Over the last 2 days most of the snow has melted away and tomorrow I should be able to actually get to my garden! I will assess and start cleaning it up. I’ll take it slow, learning from your eagerness!
The world is crazy, no one can deny that! Affordability is slipping away and uncertainty reigns supreme, but the garden will definitely help on the multiple levels you just shared. Each seed I drop for my starts and soon directly sowed in the garden will be just a little more peace of mind. Gardening is resistance. As always thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts! 💕
We added 3 new beds this year because food prices are outrageous! With everything going on, I wonder if it will be enough? We have rabbits and groundhogs that visit our yard, along with the occasional deer. Squirrels have wrecked my garden in years past. I planted 76 bulbs of garlic and those little stinkers pulled up all 76 bulbs. I was able to save most of them as they are growing wild now. I'm sure their growth was stunted some. Live and learn. Still here I am trying my best to grow my garden despite the fact the squirrels wreck the garden beds and dig in my greenstalks. Ggrrr!! I have noticed they hate shiny pinwheel wind spinners and for now that has seemed to work.
I enjoyed every word!
Hope and faith grow in my gardens, both metaphorically and in the real.
I feel that this is true for most gardeners in general.
I'm pretty sure that two of my neighbors are onboard for starting gardens this season.
I have offered my experience and knowledge and it has been gratefully received.
The seven year old next door was my garden shadow last season. She wants to help with starting the seeds. My aged and gnarled hands will be so grateful for the intense way she places them so carefully in the grow pots.
That I am effecting a love of gradening feels delightfully subversive.
We will survive and thrive in spite of all of the crazy.
❤️👏
You make such an impact in so many lives. Thank you for your hope. Thank you for your guidance. It's grounding in a way little is. No over dramatization. No sound effects. Just life and truth and heart. Gob bless you Jess.
I've been teaching friends how to garden. I think most of them at this point see it as a hobby, thinking it will look like it doss on Pinterest. I hope soon they will start seeing it as a lifestyle, as a necessity, and as their victory. It is for me. I'm going into my 15th gardening season. It allows us to eat how we eat, to live how we live and to afford what we afford. If it wasn't for the garden, I'm not sure how we'd afford to live.. Thank you for your encouragement, Jess, I know I am not alone!
I keep putting off reading your posts. I keep telling myself I want to wait till later when I can really enjoy and soak up your words. (I definitely wish they were recorded so instead of my mind hearing you speak, I could listen to you.) I have only managed to make myself sit still for a few and each one makes my heart miss you all the more. Since I went back to work full time just shy of a year ago now, I have missed you. Even getting to see you again and meet your family 2 months ago, I have missed you. I have been struggling with whether or not I can handle growing a garden this year. If you recall, many of my posts last year were about how thankfully, though my poor garden suffered the vast absence of me, it proved how sturdy it is and enough flourished to make me sigh a small amount of relief that not all was lost and 'plants want to grow.' Now I'm coming up on another season and Spring is still teasing us here in CT. I long for the ability to garden as you do. I was starting to realize that before I had to go back to work and now it feels like a terrible tease. I didn't even have the strength or time to winterize my bed like I usually do. The pallets never made it to the garden. The cardboard never used. The leaves never spread over to mulch themselves. I'm wincing at the amount of weeds I will have to contend with soon and wondering if I have it in me to take on another season on top of work. It makes my heart absolutely sick to think I would be walking by it every day and not have anything planted but a bunch of dill, borage, cosmos and cherry tomatoes! (though those alone would be enough to fill my small space.) I should already have my pepper seeds planted and sprouted. I haven't even taken my seeds out yet. I had kitchen pipe issues for most of this month and it turned life on its head. I'm still trying to put everything to rights. All this above insanity to say; Thank you for still sharing. Thank you for not giving up on being here for us. Whether by video, podcast or the written word, you inspire and sooth. You give hope and help all of us feel like we've found our place. Part of me harbors just a shred of jealousy that you have so much of what I wish I could (honestly I want much smaller and simpler than what you have, but the general concept of my life revolving around my home and garden and family) but mostly, you bring me comfort and hope. That in and of itself is more valuable than even I realize most days. I remember just how much I value it when I read or see or hear you speak. Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU. From the utmost bottom to the highest top of my heart for all you give of yourself. You my darling, are priceless. Blessed Be Sowards Family! <3
Heartfully and beautifully said.
Beautifully written!
No doubt with all your heart.
You are an amazing lady Jess!
Much love & respect always.
God bless you always & keep you strong,