Garden Crisis

Ack! A minor crisis in my garden this week as I discovered that the pot my Jalapeno and Anaheim pepper plants are in was infested. Now, I check my garden at least twice a day, heck, I even pray over it, and this was the first time I'd seen the horrid little buggers. I figured they were just your basic fungus gnats, so I decided to wait it out and let the plants dry out. There's not much else you can do without going all crazy with the insecticides, which I was hoping to avoid.  

Alas, by last night, I had finally determined they were not just fungus gnats, but tiny flies, and that there were literally dozens of them. Not knowing what to do, I sought some inspiration and finally came to the conclusion that they needed to be replanted. So this morning I took the drastic step of digging up the plants, throwing out the soil, and replanting them in new soil. Thankfully I had just enough soil left over to fill the pot. I inspected the little root balls, and while there was not much left, hopefully enough was still there that they will take to the new soil and begin to thrive.

This process of course triggered all sorts of analogies for me to Jacob 5 - "What could I have done more...?", etc. And there are other life lessons/metaphors that could be inferred, about the need for constant nourishment and vigilance, etc. But there were other more practical thoughts going through my mind as well. I mean, how can one have fresh salsa later this summer without the hot peppers to go with the tomatoes?  So, come on babies, GROW!