Poppa

 January 31, 2022

My second grandfather, poppa Helwig, was not only a deeply committed Christian, he was a consummate horticulturalist, one of only a handful of laymen permitted to take cuttings from the lilacs in Rochester’s famous Highland Park. He had growing in his backyard, rare lilacs worth thousands of dollars, and had developed his own strain of yews.

His home was at the end of a dead-end street beyond which extended a gully that culminated in his back yard in such a way that it was a horseshoe-shaped terraced garden, with the apex of the U giving just enough room between it and his garage for a walkway leading to his vegetable garden on the far side. The near side lay just beyond his kitchen door that dropped away in a steep terrace to the gully about twenty feet below. On the far side of the upper end of the U was his vegetable garden, its sandy-loam soil could easily be turned with a garden fork. It contained not even a pebble, let alone the rocks and weeds that surface in our gardens every spring. I’ve not seen such pristine soil even in greenhouses. 

The inside of the horseshoe held his flowers. Oh, the flowers! Perennials and annuals of every sort; he knew their scientific names, their history, and the various medicinal or gastronomic uses they have had over the years. I wish I had absorbed more of his horticultural wisdom. A veritable library died with him.

One lesson didn’t die. While visiting one day, and admiring the handiwork he attributed solely to God, he shared a bit of gardener’s wisdom that has helped me through many a difficult time. As we strolled through his vegetable garden, I marveled at the total absence of even the tiniest of weeds, to which he responded, “It’s like life; quarter inch, quarter hour; half inch, half hour; one inch, all day. Take care of matters when they’re small.”

A fruitful life doesn’t happen by accident. The soil of our hearts must be tended, adding the compost of thoroughly-thought out meditation on Scripture bathed in prayer, turned regularly by the fork of obedience, and weeded early of the tendencies and small sins which too easily grow out of control. 

“Quarter inch, quarter hour; half inch, half hour; one inch, all day.” Words to live by.