It appears that spring has hit the Pacific NW.  Believe it or not, we made it through another dark, wet, cold and this year snowy winter.  The sun is out and the mercury is rising.  

For most of us a sunny and warm Memorial Day weekend is a special bonus.  It was sunny, warm and it is staying light later.  Around here we can’t waste the nice days we do get so this means getting off of the couch and outside to do whatever needs to be done.  

My wife spent the weekend in her garden.  I have to admit that I don’t know much about plants or gardening.  The fact is, I don’t like it.  Gardening is just too slow for me. 

Even though I don’t know much about it, one of my favorite things of the summer is my wife’s beautiful garden.  I just love to look at the organization, the care she puts into it and the way she develops it to help nourish our family.  I know for a fact that it nourishes her soul as well.  She seems to be the happiest when she has dirt under her fingernails.

 She takes the time in the winter to plan out what she is going to plant that year.  She has a few things she plants every year and she changes up the others from year to year.  I don’t know if she changes it for variety or if it has something to do with the soil or what.  This is her gig and she is the expert. 

 I ask her questions about what she is doing and why she does it that way.  I want to understand a little but when she gets going on the what’s and why’s, she loses me. 

 All I know is that in the spring we eat strawberries.  We have all the greens we can eat.  She even plants flowers around the outside of garden which makes it really stunning to look at. 

 She grows great tomatoes and the corn is sweet.  We use the corn stalks to decorate for Halloween and Thanksgiving and pumpkins always seem to show up at the right time. 

 This all happens because my wife is a planner when it comes to making this all work.   Like all gardeners, she understands the laws of the farm. 

 Here are the laws of the farm:

 You have to cultivate the soil to make sure it is ready for the seed.

• You reap what you sow.  If you plant turnips, you don’t get daffodils.
• You have to consistenty nourish your plants with what they need to grow.  This includes getting rid of the weeds and other attackers that steal what your plants need in order to grow to their potential. 
• You sow your crops in one season and harvest in the next. 

 This is the natural order of things.  You can’t shorten it or skip a step.  It just doesn’t work that way.  It takes time and the right ingredients to create a bountiful harvest. 

 If you have already made the connection between my wife’s garden and your money, good for you?  The law of the farm works exactly the same way with your money. 

 You have to cultivate the soil.  Invest some time in learning about your money and what you could or should be doing with it.  Start by digging into your spending.  Look at where you are spending your money.  Are you spending all of your harvest each month.

 You have to plant some crops.  If you are spending everything you bring in or even more.  You don’t have any seeds to plant to create a financial harvest. 

 You have to feed your investments on a regular basis and guard them against financial predators out there to steal your harvest. 

 And finally, you will not create a bountiful financial harvest overnight.  Like the farm, your money doesn’t work that way. You save, you invest, it grows and then you harvest. 

 I wish you all could see how my wife combines the law of the farm and a lot of love together to create a wonderful garden each year. 

 In our family, it’s my job to apply the law of the farm to our money.  I have to admit that she knows more about money than I know about gardening.  We have a financial vision for our family and our jobs in that vision have been discussed and agreed upon.  We are both happy with the vehicle each of us has chosen to use these laws of nature to support our family. 

 Over the Memorial Day weekend she dug in the dirt and I took a 4 day, 1,300 mile motorcycle trip to Montana.   We both had a great time and appreciated each other even more when the weekend came to an end.