1. Introduction

In Genesis chapter 1, we read how God, our awesome and wondrous Creator, created everything in the heavens and on the earth and He looked and saw that it was good. He created the light from which all life derives its source. He created air, water and nutrients and their complex cycles upon which all life is supported. He created the soil and all its living organisms both visible and invisible. He created plants bearing fruit and seed after their own kind and He created animals, and finally He created man. Everything He created was good and productive and fruitful. Nothing the Lord created was without purpose and all of creation fitted together in a maze of complex inter-connected relationships which are still trying to be fathomed by man to this day. 

An interesting part of the creation story is in Genesis 2, when God made a food garden, in the east of Eden, for Adam and Eve. 

Gen 2:8 “And the Lord God planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and He put the man whom He had formed there. 9 And the Lord God caused to grow from the ground every tree that is desirable and pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” 

God created the very first garden and put Adam in that garden to “work and care for it”. God Himself is the first and Master Farmer!!! In that garden God taught Adam everything he needed to know about His creation, how to work the land and care for it. 

So what is so important about this to growing Vegetables? Well quite frankly everything!!! 

If we understand that God first created all forms of life and the structures on which life are founded then we must acknowledge that He has a Way of doing things that work in the best way possible. 

We all know that the very best person to teach you how to use something is its creator. The same applies in agriculture. We need to go back to the Author of Creation, and observe the Way He designed plants to grow within their created environment and be humble enough to learn from the Master Farmer. God’s creation still demonstrates all of the attributes of “God’s garden in the east of Eden” – he never inverts the soil; there is a continuous blanket or mulch on top of the ground made up of many layers of gradually decomposing plant materials like leaves, branches, fruits and manure on the surface of the ground; and a great biodiversity of species. All we need to do is follow the ways He has shown us since the beginning of all time. 

Within these demonstrated boundaries we try to emulate as closely as possible what our Creator has shown us to do, through minimal soil disturbance, keeping a 2.5 cm thick blanket cover on top of the ground and practising rotations. 

But this story is far more than just a technological practise…God designed for man to live in a real tangible relationship with Himself and would come to the garden to walk and talk with Adam in the cool of the day. 

Why would the Creator of the Universe, the God of all, do that? 

Because He loves mankind and His desire was to have a created being who would, according to His own free will, choose to have a heartfelt relationship with Him. No animal or any other earthly created being has this choice. 

When man sinned and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, against the Lord’s instruction, he broke that covenant of relationship and as a result of that Adam was kicked out of the garden and cursed with hard labour, sweat and weed growth. None of these curses had been a part of a farming lifestyle prior to the fall. 

However, the worst thing that took place was that sin now separated mankind from God and he no longer had this privilege of a divine relationship with Him – which was God’s ultimate objective. 

The great news is that Jesus came to break every curse and to give to everyone that believes in Him the right to be called the children of God and once again to be reconciled to the Father in a real relationship.

Colossians 1 “15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”  

Jesus, who is called the second Adam, has made a way for us to have the ban lifted that we can once again enter into “the garden in the East of Eden” and experience a life in relationship with our Creator. This is ultimately what we want to see happen in all of our Farming God's Way gardens; be that at field or small nutrition garden scale – lives reconciled to a meaningful relationship with the Lord and where His bountiful blessings overflow in the garden. 

This Farming God’s Way Vegetable Guide is a resource, advocating techniques that are proven and simple, to allow for successful implementation amongst the poor.