TESTING MY PATIENCE

I'm not sure that I'm good enough a writer to explain what I endeavoured to do yesterday, and that was to facilitate the downspout into the ground to alleviate and direct the run-off, preventing it from washing away the new brown mound of mulch which encircles my beautiful Japanese Maple Tree, home of the Wrens.

I used a flexible, black plastic pipe which is inserted at the base of the downspout. Initially, I allowed the black pipe to run across the lawn, then dug a ditch which pitched the pipe downward to drain, covering it with rocks and setting brickwork in between the two large square cement stepping stones, which is a walkway that leads from the front of the house around to the deck.

When the job was done, I neatly covered the sides of the black pipe with brown mulch to match the walkway of large stepping stones. It looked great as it aligned the rest of the garden, all properly edged with new mulch.

The end of the hose drained onto a stone area and I thought that this was going to work out without having to increase the length and depth of the ditch. Unfortunately, torrents of rain came down over the stepping stone and not under, as I had intended. Plan two was in order, and that is how I spent my morning.

I dug it down well enough to grade the bottom of the flexible pipe to drain below the ground and attached plastic flower pots to direct the water between the two large square stepping slabs, joining them with another piece of black piping. Then I used rocks and bricks to anchor the entire job. The water will be diverted through the system and out along side the small ditch and will hopefully run down the lawn, without moving the mulch, as it did yesterday.

The entire job is covered by mulch, which is above the piped water culvert, running down an embankment. My only concern will be the critters, that may enter the opened piped area, like snakes or frogs. If that is the case, I may have to use screening.

Now, I'm waiting for rain, to see if my work will be successful. If not, I will have to correct it, as this area must be kept dry. The stepping stones can be slippery enough in the winter without adding ice on them.

Life requires patience, and sometimes things do not turn out right the first time. We must be willing to keep trying.

Last year, I was so upset with my rather large Hydrangea bush, not flowering since the time my kids gave me the potted beauty, and having lost my patience with it, I almost did the inevitable. My tender loving care was at an end, and after years of fertilizing and pruning, I was ready to pluck it out by the roots. Learning a secret on the Internet, I thought "I've got nothing to lose" and "this is the last straw," I went into the garage and applied the knowledge.

They said to do it in the fall, which I did. I took an ice pick and got down into the roots. Slamming them so they would understand that I meant business. The idea being that they felt they would be snuffed out and therefore, would produce baby plants and flowers in order to extend their existence. In short, they felt threatened.

I just came in from outside and can't wait to see what color the flowers will be. Just as they said, I have new plants all around it with flowers on them also.

There seems to be some kind of communication between me and my living plants, "they got my message". In thinking about it, when I read in the gospel about the fig tree, which whithered, I initially could not get it in my head why Jesus expected fruit or it would die. I got it now. How long would He be patient with a people who failed to be obedient to Him?

I can tell you that I now know the lesson on not being fruitful. Working in a garden teaches you a lot about life.