I love gardens. I'm especially fond of English gardens full of friendly flowers. But the gardening part? Not so much. It's growing on me, though.

My disdain for gardening is rooted in busy-ness and always having a schedule. Gardening cannot be controlled. Weeds don't sprout at convenient times. Vegetable and flower picking happen at the spur of the moment so they don't wilt and spoil on the vine.

I've never been a spur-of-the-moment kind of girl. I can plan an awesome garden. I'll draw it out with pretty colored pencils, label it all official like, and take it with me to the store. Alphabetized rows of vegetables? You got it! Color-coordinated flowers? Why not?

And then, well, my to-do list piles up, and gardening becomes one more thing for which I don't have time.

Clear the schedule, clear the weeds, here we go

But this summer?

My plan was for a no-holds-barred vegetable garden. I dreamed of zucchini and cucumbers and tomatoes and all the delicious things I would make with them.

It started with purchasing soaker hoses and enough weed mat for my 20' x 40' plot. Next came seeds in little starter pods inside a mini-greenhouse. Then it was time to plant. I nearly had heat stroke on that black mat next to the white house planting all my cute little vegetable starts. A cold shower and a big ice water later, I turned on the hose. Then I forgot about it. Until my garden looked like a rice patty.

Beautiful, bountiful veggies....everywhere

Soon radishes peeked red beneath the dirt. Then strawberries. And herbs. It was exciting to everyone at first, not just me. The kids couldn't wait to pick things. My husband and parents would ask daily how things were growing.

Summer droned on, one day hot, the next day rainy, and soon I needed the kids' red wagon to haul in the foot-long zucchini that seemingly sprouted overnight. And there were summer squash and cucumbers and sweet peas and green beans and radishes and grape tomatoes and lettuce.

The fields are ripe but the workers are few

The novelty of baskets and wagons full of vegetables wore off and soon I was the only one in the garden, battling the mosquitoes, jumping at the frogs, screaming at the snake. Sweat dripping down my back, mud between my toes, it was hard work for this newbie gardener. Oh but how rewarded I felt as I surveyed my piles of veggies!

Planting is one thing. Harvesting is another. Sometimes the harvest is bountiful. Sometimes it's meager. But the work still has to be done. When I look around my community, I see a lot of planting but not much harvesting. There are people in the gardens of our lives struggling to grow among the weeds, others with fruit rotting on the vine, and yet others still who need more Son.

There aren't enough workers in His garden. The harvest is ripe. It's ready. It's a whole lot of messy, dirty, uncomfortable work. But the reward? It's rich and sweet and delicious.

Have you discovered you love something you once didn’t have time to do? What is your role in God’s garden? Are you a planter? A weeder? A harvester?

Kristy Rose is a Gen X homeschooling mom who sells Avon to support her writing habit. In 2006, God transplanted her to North Dakota. Moving to the state her great-grandparents homesteaded in 1903 and the ensuing adventures on the prairie have deepened her faith and given her a heart-felt understanding of God's amazing mercy and grace. You can get her take on pretty much everything at throughrosecoloredglasses.weebly.com. Read more JOY Blog posts by Kristy.