Spring!!

Spring—flowers are starting to stick up out of the ground. Bushes are getting buds on the ends of their limbs. Birds are in the yard, chirping away. All around us, the world is coming to life!! 

Winter was such a time of sleep— all these things covered up and hidden, gone from sight.  But they were not gone from hope.

My husband and I like to watch gardening shows together. Every spring, something calls to me, and I am outside, working in my garden. I do not really know what I am doing. I just like to grow things.

When I first started gardening, I was a young mom, with no budget at all for buying plants.  My mom and dad would give me plants from their garden, and so would others. The border of purple geraniums now surrounding my garden are from my parents.

I received Shasta daisies and black-eyed susans from my neighbor.

I have lilies from the library. They tore all their lilies out to make room for other plants and were giving away their lilies for free.

I have a lilac bush that is from my great-grandmother. Imagine that!!  My dad gave it to me when we moved into this house. He had one from his grandparent’s farm and started one for me from a cutting.

Another friend gave me a Rose of Sharon bush that has had many babies, which are now bushes in my landscape design.

I have some lovely purple irises from my mother-in-law.  (I brought them all the way back from the Beach House wrapped in wet paper towels and put in plastic bags.)  They did not bloom for a few years, but now I have separated them several times and they are all over my garden.

I have some purple salvia from one of my best friends, and some yellow whorled tickseed from her as well.

I love adding to my garden in this way.  Every plant has a memory and a person attached to it.

My Aunt Rosie, my Uncle Don’s sister– died this winter.  She lived a few blocks from the first house we lived in when we were first in town, and I would often visit her.  She gave me several of her plants from her garden, including a variegated ground cover plant, and some yellow lilies, and when I weed them or separate them—I think of her. 

Gardening for me, is a time to meditate and think of many things and people. When I was a young mom, I started gardening while the little ones played outside, so I could be with them. As they grew older, I would seek solace and alone time in my garden. I found my children left me alone there, as they did not want to weed. 🙂

I have many conversations with God in my garden. I find there are so many analogies for life found in a garden. The Bible has so many stories that involve seeds, plants, trees, planting, and harvesting. I am sure most people gardened back in Jesus’ day, and could relate to stories about gardening.

 We also know—God made the first Garden.  The Garden is our first habitat. So, even though, many, like myself, do not know what we are doing—we may find ourselves drawn to the garden and to the act of gardening.   We may find it is the perfect place to think, to be rejuvenated, to converse and walk with God, just as was done all those millennium ago.