Growing from Seed: Where it Works (or Not)

I've heard that parsley can be hard to grow. I know it's been a challenge to me! I could scatter the seeds in the open soil, but apparently, the birds would eat all the seeds.

I'd also heard that parsley seeds take some time to germinate. So I would try again, soaking them overnight, eventually sprouting them indoors on damp paper towels, to plant in the garden after they'd sprouted. Again, probably tasty food for some critter or insect. No survivors with this method either.

But I finally got one parsley plant to take off. I'd bought it in the herb section of the local nursery, planted it, watered it. It was going strong. I decided I'd let it go to seed. Perhaps if it produced lots and lots of seeds, a few of them might take.

Several years later, I have quite the parsley patch. But I thought it was interesting where it had decided to grow. I had sprinkled some of the seeds in one plot of dirt, and other seeds among the spearmint. (Spearmint will grow like a weed, so there's always some spearmint growing.)

I have a theory on why the seeds sprouted up into parsley plants in the spearmint bed, while the seeds in the other bed failed completely: Those darn birds again. They can easily find the seeds in a perfectly plowed, prepared plot. Ah, but they don't bother with the seeds sprouting beneath layers of spearmint. Perfect!

As we've been doing a study on stress with my woman's group, I considered the application for this truth of nature. In our study, it's mentioned that there is good stress and bad stress. The bad stress is that which we've created for ourselves. Imagine that the perfectly plowed, prepared plot is the stress we've created for ourselves. When the "birds" of our lives come along and eat what we've planted in this perfect plot, we become so frustrated. How could this happen after so much work?!

But imagine that the spearmint bed is God's perfect stress. It's the things in our lives that naturally pop up, even appearing "weed-like". Potentially stressful. But if we view those "weeds" as something that God allows, so that something even better can grow in our life, then the potential stress melts away as we realize, "God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

A verse mentioned in our stress study says, "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:11)

In years past, I viewed the spearmint bed as something of a nuisance. It would easily get overgrown, expanding its territory into other regions, out of control. I learned to keep it pruned back a bit, containing it in one specific area. And that's where my parsley has come to grow.