We have quite the extensive garden here on the farm. In addition to space for the vegetables, we have a large strawberry patch, a large blueberry patch, and so many fruit trees. It’s wonderful.

But this time of year it’s a lot of work.

The soil needs to be prepped for planting. Seeds are germinated and planted. Starts are purchased for things we don’t want to (or forgot to) start from seed.

And there’s the weeding.

Oh, the weeding.

Good thing I like weeding.

One thing, though, that’s especially critical this time of year is getting to the blackberries before they take over everything. This requires some clippers and a good set of leather gloves. Even with the gloves I still end up pulling thorns out of my hands.

If I keep getting thorns in my hands why do I do it?

It’s therapeutic, weeding. If I’m angry, it can feel good to yank things up by the roots.

It’s meditative. Just me in the sun. The smell of springtime. The bird calls. The smell and feel of the dirt as I stir it up.

I can listen to an audiobook while weeding. That makes the time go faster and it makes it more pleasant.

Plus, I’m helping plants grow by removing other plants that would hinder their growth. The tomatoes and zucchini and corn and strawberries and blueberries throughout the season make it worth it.

So other plants that I wouldn’t otherwise mess with are ripped up by the roots and tossed out of the garden onto the compost heap.

As much as I love morning glories and blackberries, I pull them up, too.

There’s nothing like a

ripe blackberry warm from the sun and sweet as can be.

It wasn’t until I was telling a friend about all of the work I was doing to clear away everything from around the berries that I realized how much what I was doing reminded me of that bit in John 15 where Jesus talks about being the vine.

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.
John 15:1‭-‬2 NLT

He could have been talking about blackberry vines here just as much as he was talking about grape vines.

You see, when I could, when the blackberries weren’t a threat to the blueberries or strawberries, I would only trim off the new growth so it could put all of its energy into producing berries. If a vine had berries on it, it stayed. If there were no berries, it got trimmed. It’s what every good gardener does. And this summer, there will be strawberries, blueberries, and wild blackberries.

So we can make pie or jam or fruit leather or just freeze the berries for later eating.

And having to pull thorns out of my hands won’t seem like much in the way of sacrifice when there’s berry pie to be made and eaten.

It’s just like sunburn, bug bites, and rashes due to a plant allergy.

So I’ll be out in the garden every chance I get this spring and summer, listening to my audiobooks, keeping company with the outdoors, and helping things grow.