The Horticulturally Hopeless Cucumber

I am not a green thumb.

A brown thumb. A black thumb. 

Horticulturally hopeless, as one responder called it on an online forum defining the opposite of a green thumb. My mother grew and still grows a large garden with a wonderful harvest. I've attempted each year or every other year to plant a vegetable garden. I seem to be able to on occasion get a small harvest. A measly one. For me, it is not motivating to put a lot of effort into gardening without a great harvest. 

I once read the key to motivating a preschooler in their journey to reading was this formula: Effort + Success = Motivation. I've used it often to encourage myself or others to be motivated.

But somehow my efforts in gardening have never produced great success. I've learned a lot about distraction, about likening rooting out life's problems to pulling out weeds, and my one large victory has been I have not yet killed the snake plant in my home I bought a few years ago.

My motivation to keep going has been to show my kids the importance of gardening. Of working at something and not giving up. Of the law of the harvest. But it hasn't really convinced me yet. I have one child who does seem to have a love of growing living things and has been the one to motivate me to try again year after year.

This year I resolved it would be different. I would tear out that garden box full of grass and I would succeed at staying on top of the weeding. My flower beds might suffer, but I would be successful.

And I started off strong. I planted both cucumber seeds and small cucumber plants in case the seeds didn’t work like last year. I also got some great tips about adding nitrogen to help them grow. Things were going good. The plants were thriving.

Then it froze one night when I wasn’t paying attention. When it was supposed to be past the season of freezing. My poor cucumber plants died. *Sigh* Another year of trying and failing.

But wait.

Those seeds I had planted? They sprouted up the next week. My seeds that I had never been able to sprout had sprung!

Things were going good again. They were great. I kept up my careful garden tending.

Then we went on vacation. In the middle of June. When we were gone, I saw it was supposed to freeze. In June?!? We were far away. No where near to save the plants. My sweet neighbor who had been coaching and encouraging me was a phone call away. She went over and covered my plants.

It worked. By the end of the summer, we were harvesting large, delicious cucumbers everyday.

One of my favorite quotes by Richard G Scott states: “When you are determined to succeed, you will find a way.”

I also believe God and the angels he sends seen and unseen help us find a way. It will be interesting to one day look back at the movie of my life and witness just how much help we received when we are determined to find a way.

Cynicism is easy and destructive. Hope requires work and accomplishes miracles. Feed hope and look for the helpers.

Note: I began writing this last year and just hopped on and saw I never published it, so here it is almost a year later. Cucumber seeds aren’t working as well this year. Turnips are though! Seasons of life and time given to different projects.