I’m not patient enough to be a farmer.

I would like to have a home vegetable garden. It’s a dream that I haven’t given up on yet. However, I wonder if I have the patience to work my dream.
I purchased some very strong, healthy, beautiful strawberry plants, with the intention to have my granddaughter and I plant them together and then we would be able to watch them grow. I decided to place the plants in an area where she walks by when she comes to visit. I could see us harvesting the round juicy red fruit in early June. I can still imagine us sitting on our front lawn, munching on fresh strawberries just picked from my garden.

We planted the tender plants on Sunday, which was a seasonably warm March day. The instructions on the container indicated that planting could occur anytime after the soil was workable. My granddaughter and I had fun, we met a little worm along the way, wiggling out of the fresh turned earth, and I think the experience opened doors that this curious little person and I will visit again later.
The very next day, we were visited by a cold snap. As I went to work, I looked at the eight plants, and knew, I’ll have to protect them somehow from the evening chill.
19 degrees may be too much strain for the little plants to hold up under. I watered the earth around them, said a prayer, and piled leaves gently over their drooping tops hoping the decayed leaves will provide some protection from March’s frigid air temperature.
I peeked at the tender plants this morning. I don’t think they are going to survive. I can feel the frozen moisture in the leaves and stems. I’ll uncover them as the sun gets higher in the sky- perhaps there’s hope for one or two plants.
Another lesson of the fragility of life.
Another lesson in patience.