Lessons from the Garden - Part 3

The Lesson of Strawberries and Over Crowding:

            Perhaps you too love the taste of fresh, vine-ripened strawberries.  We love our berries, though not many varieties grow well in northeast Montana (strawberries, raspberries, and juneberries).  About six years ago we planted a new strawberry patch here and began to simply let it grow.  The first year we got a modest picking.  The second year we expected much better, but still only got modest pickings (It should be noted that ever-bearing strawberries do not produce as many berries at once, though they yield a wonderful second crop that lasts for weeks and weeks). We were able to do alright with the berries we got, but were disappointed.  By the third year, half of the patch was hardly producing a thing, though it was lush and green with foot tall plants.  What I learned was that if you allow strawberry plants to multiply unchecked, they choke each other out, making the entire patch unproductive.  Too much of a good thing is apparently not good.  Instead, strawberry runners have to be trimmed, limited numbers allowed, and old plants removed regularly.  Otherwise the patch overcrowds itself and produces nothing.

            Let us draw another spiritual and even a general life lesson.  How many of us have found ourselves so busy that we do not do anything well, and in the end our lives are crowded full and unproductive, both spiritually and from a natural perspective.  I am a person very prone to this.  I have a fair number of hobbies, and passions for service in the church, and I enjoy being busy immensely.  I love a full schedule.  However, when my plate becomes too full, I end up not doing things as well, cutting time short, taking short-cuts, forgetting “small” responsibilities, and neglecting the people whom I ought most care about (like my family).  In short, if I fill all of my time, I do not have time to pray, to be in scripture, or to care for my wife and children, all of which I am called to do. 

            So consider the lesson of the strawberry patch.  Keep your life focused without excess and you will find your yield to be good and full.  Also remember that some things (like old strawberry plants) may cease to be fruitful.  They may need re-evaluation, or even to be let go of because God has moved you to a new season.  There may be a new work that He wants you to do and you must let go of a calling that He had given you that you were passionate about in order to embrace this new work.

            Back to the strawberry patch, I dug out a bunch of plants and transplanted them into new patches, kept them in thin rows and got better production.  Now I am tearing out the old patch completely, tilling it up and starting again, keeping it in the thin rows, only allowing some runners, and then I will cut out and cover up old, non-producing plants each year.  This should result in a better yield.  May I learn to do likewise in my life as I serve God.