A couple of years ago, I learned an important lesson about watering gardens. You only water where it is essential; otherwise, you have weeds galore all over your garden. When I was younger, I remember my mom watering her garden with a couple of big oscillating sprinklers much like this one.
(Oscillating Sprinkler)
Now, these sprinklers seem to be a very ingenious way to water your garden, because they are easily set up and even easier to move around. The big problem with these types of sprinklers for vegetable gardens is that they water the entire garden area including areas without plants. This creates much more work in the long run because you have to keep the entire garden weeded, not just the plant rows. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to weed more than I absolutely have to. There is too much other stuff to do to in a vegetable garden to waste time on all that weeding.
Over the years, I have paid close attention to how my parents garden. Several years ago, they had decided to start flood watering their plants. They built up edges around the plant rows to create barriers to hold the water in around the plants. With this method, it gives the plants a much more concentrated dose of water. This helps the vegetable plants to be stronger and healthier.
(Dirt barriers around plants)
There is also reduced weeding, and you can spend more time doing the important things for your garden. Even though it is more time consuming to flood water, it does do a much better job at keeping your plants watered and nurtured. As I watched my parents' gardens grow, I noticed that the plants that were flood watered were much healthier than the plants that were watered with the oscillating sprinkler.
As I got to thinking about these two different methods of watering, I started thinking about the parallels these two methods had with parenting styles. We, as parents, can either be much like the flood watering method or like the oscillating sprinkler method. When we are nurturing our "seeds/children" ourselves, we are more like the flood-watering method. We are able do be more effective. We are able to more effectively build up barriers between our children and the evil influences of the world. We are able to give them more concentrated doses of things that will help them in their lives. This more concentrated effort in nurturing helps them to be stronger in the Gospel and better members of society. This isn't to say there won't be any "weeds/bad influences" in their lives. There will still be "weeds", they will just be easier to pull up and get rid of.
The oscillating sprinkler method is much like letting others take over our job as nurturers. If we let our neighbors, church leaders, friends, and media nurture our children, good things will still grow, but they won't be as strong and there will be a lot more weeds to deal with. It will be harder to get rid of the weeds if we have not been there for our children.
Now, a word to those parents who have been good nurturers to their little "seeds" who have been overtaken by the weeds. Don't give up hope. Your little "seeds" are still there under all those weeds. Those weeds can be pulled up and gotten rid of. Don't loose faith that one day, those weeds will be gone, and your "seeds" will be able to get the proper nourishment and sunshine they need. You have been given a promise that if you are faithful in your lives, those precious "seeds" will survive.
Let us all be like the flood-watering method and give our little seeds the concentrated doses of nurturing they need to survive in this world. Happy Gardening.
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