The Prune

When we moved into this new house, Calum and I knew we were going to have to tackle the huge garden whether we knew how to or not. It was extremely overgrown and its beauty had long been covered up by weeds, long grass and out of control shrubs and trees. We were reminded a couple of times that a few owners previous to us, used to have the garden so pretty that people got their wedding photos taken in it. This made Calum feel the pressure that he had to get the garden looking just as lovely again!! 🙈

The first spring we spent in this house, I decided to tackle the two borders out the front of the house. Armed with a shovel, a saw and some secateurs, I spent hours clearing away all the overgrown bushes/trees. I ached for days afterwards, but I just loved it. Calum watched from the window, unsure as to why this brought me so much joy, however he was happy to remain inside and watch the kids and let me be.

As Phoebe got a little older, she was regularly ‘plunked’ into a baby walker or something similar and sat outside next to me as I worked away in the garden. I think it is safe to say that my favourite job in the garden is cutting things back. Even the kids know that. There was one year where the kids would shout on Calum when they saw me walking through the garden with a saw or my aunt's giant secateurs that I had inherited. They would yell at Dad that ‘she’s at it again’!! Sure enough, Calum would appear afraid to ask what I was going to chop down next.

You see, Calum doesn’t really enjoy the ‘cutting back’ side of gardening. He struggles to see beyond the mess that it initially creates. Branches, bushes and tree trunks lying around. He can’t see beyond that, in order to picture the hidden beauty that has often been forgotten underneath. Now, he just accepts that I’m determined to chop down, trim back or cut down whatever is annoying me and it's best to just leave me to it. Although secretly I think he trusts me now that I know what I am doing, but I don’t think he will ever admit it!! 😂

It’s nearly ten years since we moved into this house and sadly there are less and less areas in the garden that need to be completely cleared away! You would think this is a good thing because it means that we have made so much progress, but it does sadden me that soon I might never need to do it again. 🙈😂

Recently after what seemed like weeks of endless rain we managed to get out in the garden. I spent a few days tidying all the borders just the way Calum likes them. Then I began to tackle some areas that needed a good clearing out. (I’m wisening up as I’ve realised that in order to get Calums support to clear out, I need to get it all sitting nice and tidy first before he will start making a mess 😉!)

We have an area in the garden that is surrounded by brick pillars. I’m not entirely sure what it once was, there is a concrete foundation in the middle and each pillar is connected to another by a wooden beam. There is a clematis growing up one pillar and the rest were completely covered by a type of ivy. However, one of the beams had rotted through and snapped and the ivy was trailing along the ground through one of Calums nice tidy borders 🙊.

I looked out my tools and off I set to start cutting back this ivy, so that we could put a new piece of wood in. I quickly realised that this was going to be a bigger job than I’d thought. The ivy was so thick and out of control that the whole structure was really suffering from it. In the end I had to rope Calum in to help me, as it was so thick and high that it took us a day and half to clear it all away.

What surprised me though, was that although this was unbelievably thick, in some places it must have been 2 feet deep, it was only actually the very top layer that was alive and green. Underneath the green leaves it was all dead stuff caught up in the thousands of roots growing everywhere. I have never sneezed so much in all my life whilst gardening, because of the dust and stoor that was trapped in there. At one point Calum was on top of a ladder shaking the ivy and it just felt like it was raining dead leaves and dust. It was up my nose, in my eyes and through my hair. We found 7 old bird nests and I even came across an illuminous green netted bag that I had bought with bird feed in it for the birds the first winter we moved into the house. I had wanted to attract the birds for the kids to watch and I remember one day watching a squirrel make off with the netted bag into the trees stealing the birds food. 9 years later I find it underneath all that rubbish!!

We actually built a bonfire and burned all the dead branches and leaves straightaway. We didn't need to wait till it dried up first. It was so dead and dry it burned with no bother. It's like what this verse says, it made me think of the rubbish and dead stuff I gather up in my life when I'm living to please me and not God.

"Yes, I (Jesus) am the vine; you are the branches. Thoses who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit, For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile and burned."

John ch 15:5-6

Sadly in the past I've drifted away from living each day for Jesus and this is when I've grown away from the strength and support of the structure like the ivy. I've gone my own way in all different directions. But this only resulted in me holding onto years of 'dead stuff' in my life that was weighing me down. Things that were holding me back from living my best with Jesus. But then God would step in and bring me back to Him, to the security and structure that He brings. He causes me to re-examine myself and let go of all the ‘dead stuff’ that He had no use for, and graciously brings beautiful, new fresh life to my life once again.

I am an independent person, I'm not good at accepting things that I’m not capable of doing! Even if it involves a potential injury, I’ll carry the thing that is too heavy for me, I’ll reach the height that is too high, even if it scares me in the process. I’ll give something a try that needs doing, even if it means I have a restless night's sleep the night before. I get so determined with myself that I force myself to do it and I enjoy the independence that it brings.

Like the ivy, I don't like anything holding me back. I like to get on with things. The downside to borrowing things from my Dad (usually his tools) is that he likes to thoroughly show me how to use it first. Sometimes he suggests that maybe Calum would be better using it, this usually makes me more determined to do it 😜. I recently borrowed a strimmer from him and he had to plug it in and give me a demonstration first, show me how to hold it 🙈😂, gave me a few do’s and don’ts before he would let me take it home. He’s always been like that and I’ve learned to let him have his moment, inwardly though I’m desperate to just get on with it and have zero patience as he explains it to me.

Over the last month or so I have started a few new projects. My independent spirit is quick to soldier on and I felt myself growing quickly like the ivy, roots growing all ways and after a little while I feel myself just like it growing to two feet beyond the brick structure and becoming out of control. I realised where I’d gone wrong and that if I was to manage these new projects then I could only do so with God’s help and strength. I felt God bring me back to my roots, back to basics where my foundation starts with Him. Instead of living at that fast pace, leaving God behind, I made sure to start each day the right way, spending time with God and re-organising my priorities if need be.

This photo of a tree that I see regularly on a walk reminds me of a verse in Psalm ch1

“But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.”

I know that in order for me to live in the good of God's strength and ability I need to have my roots like this tree, firmly grounded in his word, drawing from it as much of God as I can, not swaying wildly around in all directions being blown about in the wind like my out of control ivy.

Now that we have the ivy under control, the plan is to keep it growing along the brick structure and timber frame and cut it back when needed. Just like the verses in John 15 say, it's an encouragement to me to try and keep living my life against the structure, the vine, of God. It's not always easy, and I'm so quick at being independent, but I have learned the only way to live a life that produces the best in me is to stay close to God.