Life starts in the garden

Friends from church are moving to Canada for 3 years and have entrusted their precious community garden plot (or allotment as we call it at home!) to our church family. We are very excited!!

There are tomatoes, basil, lemongrass and poblano peppers and the raspberry canes, freed from the weeds are promising tasty berries now they can see the sun. I'm intrigued by our watermelon plants & I marvel at the variety and quality of produce and flowers the other gardeners have in the plots. The Beloved, Miss O and I headed there early yesterday morning to put in some marigolds and a miniature pumpkin plant. Despite thunder storms being forecast for this week, we are yet to see any rain. So after her first wheelbarrow ride, helping Daddy tie-in the raspberry canes and turn over some earth, Miss O helped me water herself and the plot.

I've always loved gardening, ever since I was a little girl and my Great Uncle Jim taught me to dig, prune, water and nurture flowers and veg. The garden has come to mean a great deal to me as a space where God teaches me about Himself, myself, and this adventurous life.

Below is an extract from a blog-post I wrote in April 2012 - it's as true today as it was then!

" There's something captivating about watching a seed or a bulb bring forth a plant with fruit or veg or flowers. All the potential for growth resides in these little pods just waiting for just the right conditions and time. Brilliant.

I've been thinking about how there are seeds of dreams, desires and talent in us. We've dreams that imperceptible - we don't even know they're there yet, and these can spring up where we least expect them. You just have to watch that they're flowers and not weeds! Other desires are bigger, we probably can't remember a time when they weren't part of us and some of these have already brought forth beautiful blooms and tender fruit. We've talents that are foundational to who we are but like bulbs we have seasons when they're on show and seasons when they turn ugly and go into hiding.

Some seeds are dormant because it's not yet time.

It dawned on me recently that I've spent a lot of time worrying about when the dormant ones will appear; concerned that perhaps those seeds are defective and dead. While the whole time there has been a beautiful garden full of character, strength, compassion and grace, being lovingly tended by The Gardener. He has rained mercy on me, feed me in goodness and kindness, pruned me when needed and delighted over the glorious floral displays.

He is making beautiful things out of the dust and ALL things will bear blooms and an abundant harvest at exactly the right time. So, The Gardener invites us to wander with Him in the cool of the day, as He shows us what He has planted and uprooted in our lives. And He implores us to celebrate the Garden that we are now and rest in the assurance that He brings all things to completion. "

Grow what you can, not what you can't

So I can grow this ....

 This ....

 And this ....

But when it comes to orchids I always end up with this ....

Oh dear. Yep I'm a serial orchid killer. No matter where I put them, how much I water or don't water them, they never flourish under my care. What the heck?

Having just read the WikiHow page on 'How to care for orchids' I think I've overwatered this one (and all the others I've killed). They seem so terribly temperamental. This much light, this much moisture ... not too much now!

I've seen the orchid display the United States Botanic Gardens - this is how they can look:

I guess I should play to my strengths and leave the orchids to the experts. It's such a life lesson - run the race set before you with the gifts and talents you been given. Nurture the tender plants that you've been entrusted with then beauty will flourish all around you. 

Clematis

I love flowers. Bright, pastel ones, demur, showy, short, tall, prickly, flouncy, I'll take them all. The Chelsea Flower Show, the Philadelphia Flower Show, and Floriade (the World Horticultural Expo that takes place every 10 years in the Netherlands) are all on my bucketlist.

My Great Uncle Jim taught me how to grow flowers when I was a little girl. He had a long back garden in his house in Belfast and we'd spend hours weeding and tying, looking and cutting the flowers and veg. He passed on his passion for the garden and his green thumb!

I shared some photos from our current garden in last week's Saturday Digest - it's great growing plants here that would find Northern Irish summers chilly and wet and dull. But it's equally thrilling to grow flowers here that I used to have in our garden in Northern Ireland.

This clematis was already well established when we bought the Hillsborough house in 2005. It took little intervention from me to provide this stunning display year on year - just the odd bit of pruning so it didn't get too wild!

 

This clematis appeared in our rented Virginia home this spring. There was no sign of it when we moved in last July, so when I spotted it peeking through the soil in April I was delighted. It has put on a great show and although we're moving out of this house at the end of July, I'll leave the trellising in place to give it a chance to grow strong.

 

I learn a lot about myself through the garden. It takes time for roots to grow deep and even then, with weathered time, I need to be pruned so I don't get too out of shape. Regardless of what I've already seen there are hidden gems planted within me that will flourish and delight at the right time, in the right context, with people around who know how to support and care for me.

So wherever you call home, seek out the light, food, pruning and trellis that you need to flourish where you are planted!