When the Work is Set Back

There are days that try a gardener’s patience. I’ve spent several weeks caring for a sunflower seedling (the only one to sprout from the seeds which had matured enough from the sunflower last year). I had the seedling covered with a little wire cage, then a bigger one, then a net as it grew to waist height. One morning, I looked out my kitchen window and almost cried because the netting had slipped down and only a pale green stalk remained. When I went out to water the other plants, I took a closer look. There were a few little leaves on it which had been missed. This is a variety that will produce several blooms off its various arms. I decided it was worth trying again. I didn’t think the stalk would get any taller, but I hoped I would at least get some blooms. Then I’d be able to harvest the seeds to try again next year. I kept watering it for those little leaves and put the net back over the bare stalk (even though it looked ridiculously futile).

Another week or two went by and the little leaves were growing and it was branching out again. Yesterday morning, I looked out the window. All the new leaves had been eaten! And the net was over the bare stalk! I rested my forehead against the glass and puzzled. Though I could allow the possibility of a deer managing to remove the net somehow, or taking advantage if it had slipped down, I’m completely baffled how it could have put the net back in place! There is just one little leaf it didn’t get.

My windows were getting worked on the same day. Replacing some broken panes and reglazing the antique windows is the last major project to do on the carriage house. While the panes were being replaced, I was inspired to clean the other windows (as far as I could reach from the inside) and scrape off old dripped paint. It was messy work. My arms ache from holding up some of the windows no longer on their pulley system. My hand is cramped from trying to get the razor blade at the correct angle. And the bottom fourth of all my windows are now clean.

While working, I found a hornet’s nest between a window and the storm window. I managed to get the storm window open while keeping the main window open as little as possible. The five hornets on the nest quivered when I moved close to them and then would become still if I backed away. With a ruler, I knocked the nest down and shut the window quickly. The hornets flew off initially, but then returned. A few flew around the spot, angrily buzzing and hitting at the window. One went back to the spot the nest had hung. It looked like it was shaking its head, moving its antennae over the area its precious work had been attached just a moment ago. Of course, I know I had to knock the nest down. It’s a window that I often open to catch a cross breeze and it just wouldn’t be safe for the nest to stay there.

It’s been hard here on earth… these last several millennia since the fall. The earth no longer yields the good crop easily. Man must work hard for a harvest and may still be unrewarded. There is scarcity of food for people and animals, and wild things are not at peace with the man their caretaker (nor has man been the caretaker he should have been).

For now, I’ll keep watering my bare sunflower stalk, the deer will seek food in the woods or try other people’s gardens, and the hornets will try for another nest. But I’ll remember that just as I am waiting, so are they, for that day when the wolf will lie down with the lamb, the crops will yield 100 fold, the deer and the lion will graze together (without causing distress to the gardener), and maybe even the hornets will build their nests with people.

Photo by Abimael Ahumada on Unsplash