As a combined activity, we did service at the LDS Church's Sandy Garden last week. I'm not a huge gardener, but I had a couple of tasks while I was there. First, I was asked to prune the grape leaves. The instructions were for me to cut the leaves back to the part on the branch where the grapes were growing (leaving the bunch of grapes on the vine) . It was a giant entanglement of vines, and I did an ok job, but every once in awhile, I would trim too far up on the vine, and a bunch of grapes would be pruned along with the excess vine. I did this 2-3 times, and each time, I felt as though I was killing grapes. They'll never have a chance to fully prosper because of me!
My second task was to thin out the cabbage sprouts. Someone had gone crazy in the greenhouse, and each little planter had 3-4 or even 6 little cabbage sprouts coming out of the dirt. My job was to leave the strongest sprout in the dirt, and to pull the rest of the sprouts out. Again.. with the killing. Everytime I did it, I felt horrible, as if it was a selective pregnancy reduction, and their little lives were in my hands. How could I decide the strong vs. the weak? It was extremely dramatic for me, but a good "growing" experience. Here is some of the beautiful full grown cabbage, and the grapes who's lives were spared!
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