Lucky duck.

Over the course of the last few months, I've worked in several different gardens: the East Nashville Cooperative Ministry (ENCM) McCoy community garden, the ENCM Bells Bend Cooperative Farm, Sulphur Creek Farm, and Paradise Produce. During this work, I've discovered a four-leaf clover in each garden and, on Friday, found not one, not two, but SEVEN lucky clovers while pulling radishes with Farmer Stacy at Paradise Produce for the Saturday morning farmers market in Franklin.

The literary analyst in me wants to declare that there is symbolism aaaaalllllll over these occurrences. Seven (luckiest number) four-leaf clovers (well-known sign of luck) in a day, accompanied by ladybugs galore? It has to mean something! Right?

I may never know if this is a symbol, literary or otherwise, of anything other than my own observational skills. However, there is in fact an agricultural basis behind the assignment of luck to four-leaf clovers and ladybugs. Farmer Stacy hypothesized that the presence of four-leafed clovers, which he notices often on his land, are a sign of soil fertility -- the clover plant is able to produce an extra leaf in response to high levels of nutrients in the soil. Ladybugs and luck also have a well-known garden explanation. These ladies voraciously consume aphids, a nasty critter that delights in gnawing on crops.

I am blessed to be working in such gardens that benefit most not from luck, but from the hard work and dedication of the men and women who are committed to loving the land and tending it well.

I'm pretty sure Thomas Jefferson addressed the idea of luck best: "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

Amen, sir.