Robbie's Garden

Last fall, Robbie's homeschooling revolved around cycles of nature. As part of the learning experience, he spent many hours planting bulbs around the yard. The greatest concentration of these were put in the front yard. Now, you can talk with a 9 year old about the promise that lies waiting in these strange brown packages, and the life that is hiding deep inside each lifeless-looking bulb...but all he knew then was that he had to dig, and dig, and dig, throw in some mothballs, and put in the bulb, cover, and repeat! He planted well over 100 bulbs, nearly all by himself. I got him started, but in the afternoons, after our lessons were over, he would spend at least 30 minutes a day planting bulbs, without my urging.

After a tedious, and not terribly snowy winter, one day we pull aside the leaf blanket we'd left on the garden and WOW! Green shoots are up all over the place. So the above is the picture of Robbie's garden taken just a few days ago. The small, multiblossomed mini daffodils are by now, but everything else is in full, beautiful color.

Robbie, a young man of few words, has got the gardening fever. How do I know? Did he jump up and down in pyroxisms of joy over the garden? No...he did not! Just not his style. He would come in and tell me when this flower or that was ready to burst into bloom, but when the Breck's Bulb catalog came in the mail last week, before I could look through it, Robbie got ahold of it...and made check marks on all the flowers that he loved. There were more check marks than I have money, lol, but in the end we compromised, and we each got several new varieties of tulips and daffodils picked out, which will come just in time for next season's homeschooling activities.

Bulbs are the promise that helps us get through winter here in New England. I'm so glad my son has felt the weight of that promise, and the joy of the beauty that those funny looking bulbs packed inside them. Behold Robbie's Garden, a parcel of peace and beauty, created by a young boy, who believes in promises.