The Waiting Season

When nothing seems to grow, everything is taking root

By Kayla Bellamy | Garden Shepherd and Community Cultivator, The Neighborhood Garden Project

There is a stretch of time between planting and harvest that can test even the most patient gardener. The seeds are in the ground, the beds are watered, and the sun is doing its work. Yet above the surface, it looks like nothing is happening.

This is the waiting season.

In the garden, it is the quiet stretch when everything seems still. Below the soil, life is quietly unfolding. Roots are stretching deep, foundations are forming, and unseen work is setting the stage for what will come. It is a reminder that growth does not always appear first on the surface. Sometimes it begins in the dark, beneath the soil, where no one can see.

Life often mirrors this pattern. We do the work. We plant, nurture, and hope. Then comes the pause—the in-between—the space between “I started” and “I see it.” It can feel slow, uncertain, or even discouraging. Yet just like in the garden, that is where the deep work is happening, the kind that takes time.

The waiting season teaches patience. It humbles us. It reminds us that true growth cannot be rushed, and that lasting fruit rarely appears overnight. It invites us to trust the process, the same way we trust that a buried seed carries within it everything needed to become what it was created to be.

So if you find yourself in a waiting season—in life, in your garden, or in your heart—do not rush it. Let the quiet do its work. Keep watering. Keep showing up. Keep believing that something beautiful is forming beneath the surface.

Because one morning, you will walk out and see that what once looked like nothing was, in fact, everything.