Coming Soon!

Greetings Parents, Family and Friends of Heritage Baptist Child Development Center!!! Our blog is currently being updated and will have a fresh face! Be on the lookout for our new look soon!!

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to the Father!" Colossians 3:17

The Beginning of a New Era

"For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning."
t.s.eliot

The Heritage CDC Learning Garden is alive and well and under "new management."

Stay tuned for new updates and posts.

A moment of silence please...

Our squash plants didn't make it.  We harvested one, count it, one squash which I delivered proudly to the Forest Park Ministry Center this week.  There is some type of worm that lives to invade and kill squash and other gourd plants and those little assassins found our garden.  (Insert heavy sigh.)  Good bye squash, we appreciate the effort.

On a positive note, we have quite a few blooms on our cucumber and tomato plants.  Bell peppers and Banana peppers are growing well.  It is our first year to have Gypsy, Poblano and Cubanelle peppers and they all seem to be doing well also.  We'll call this the summer of the peppers.  =)

On a stinky note, we are always accepting raw vegetable and fruit peels, coffee grounds, egg shells and grass clippings for our compost.  If  you have anything to donate to the compost, please see me or Ms. Ginger Cofty.  Thank you Boppin' Bluebirds for your consistent donations to the Heritage CDC Learning Garden compost!

Mistakes = Experiments

It's that time of year again in the Heritage CDC Learning Garden, spring 2013.  We have planted something old, something new, something borrowed but I don't think there is anything blue.  We planted 3 different hot/sweet peppers, 2 banana peppers, 2 green peppers, 2 cucumbers, 2 tomatoes and 2 squash.  We moved the celery we were attempting to re-grow to a smaller pot to make room for the cucumbers.  The DandyLions also helped plant pink Begonias in our flower boxes and then helped water everything!  The helpers were rewarded with an opportunity to grow something for themselves...garlic.  Don't know if anything will come of the attempt to grow garlic in small pots but as we've come to learn, any mistake made in gardening is really just an experiment.  And while we are on the subject, we've "planted" 20oz soda bottles in the containers as well.  After making holes in the bottoms we placed them in the soil hoping that when we fill them with water the water will go straight to the root of the plant.  Couldn't hurt to try, right?

Once again, we pray for rain to fill our rain barrel so we can use good water to water our plants and we pray that God will bless our efforts so we can help others.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Another winter has passed and we have once again harvested and delivered cabbages and carrots to the Forest Park Ministry Center.  This winter we tried to grow broccoli and cauliflower to add to our garden bounty.  Due to a certain "farmer's" inexperience, the broccoli and cauliflower did not make it to harvest but as always every experience is a learning experience so we'll try again next year. 

We are trying something new with celery this spring.  Check it out if you get a moment!
http://chickensintheroad.com/farm-bell-recipes/re-growing-celery/


As I am typing this I am listening to "Come Thou Fount of Blessing" by Mumford and Sons. This song is a great reminder to us to remember to praise our Father for not just our blessings, but the opportunities to praise Him in sharing our blessings with others.  Thank you God for the opportunity to share blessings with others. Please find our gifts pleasing to you. 

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love. 

 

 

 





Planting Seeds

This week we planted for our fall harvest.  We planted 3 cabbages, 2 broccoli plants, 2 cauliflower plants, 2 large pots of carrots and 1 small pot of carrots.  When planting the carrot seeds I took time to plant them at the right depth and dropped them in with care.  As I was doing this I was reminded of the parable of the farmer who goes out to plant his crop.  You can find it in Luke 8.  Most of us know the basic parts of this parable, how it pertains to hearing the word of God and how we should "plant" the word of God in our hearts and in our minds.  As I was putting the seeds into the little trench I had made I thought about how important my job is at Heritage CDC.  It's important for me as a teacher of small children to invest and instill in them the seeds of God's love. Even more, as a parent it is important for me to invest and instill in my children the seeds of God's love. Thank you God for the reminder this week, I love others because you first loved me.  Bless our cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peppers and herbs as we grow them to show others that you love them too.

 

Luke 8 

4While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

9His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

“‘though seeing, they may not see;

though hearing, they may not understand.’^a

11“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

The Very Busy Spider

We have our very own "Very Busy Spider" in the Heritage CDC Learning Garden!  When I was out in the garden contemplating whether or not to start pulling everything up I found her.  A spider that had spun a web between the butterfly bush and the green pepper plant.  In the middle of the web is a series of ball shaped sacks.  I love spiders.  I love them in books.  I love them in songs.  I love them in the garden.  I admire their work ethic.  I admire their diligence.  Needless to say, I left everything in the garden for one more week...who knows what other spiders might need a place to spin a web?

"The autumn days grow short and cold;
I'ts Christmas time again.
Then snows of winter slowly melt.
The day grows short, And then...
He turns the seasons around,
And so she changes her gown;
Mother Earth and Father Time.
How very special we are
For just a moment to be
Part of life's eternal rhyme."
Charlotte's Web by EB White