How Does Your Garden Grow?

My Mother loved to plant a garden. All her life, she was surrounded by relatives who grew beautiful gardens. I was told her father had a green thumb and could just put a twig in the ground and it would grow as he watered and tended to whatever he had planted. More than one of my cousins actually have plants in their gardens from some of his original plants. I just think that is amazing that they have been able to propagate his plants and keep them alive after all these years. My Mother must have inherited his love of plants and his green thumb. She could grow anything and has a vast knowledge of plants. My sister also has that talent as well. My green thumb exists, but not to the level of theirs. However, as children we were shown how to plant our own gardens. I remember a time when my Dad and Mom dug rows and mounds of dirt in our backyard in Lomita. My Dad had gotten the land fertilized and prepared it for us to start planting. He had gone to a store and bought an array of different seeds.

He told us how out of those seeds, with our watering and tending to the garden that we would have plants that would produce vegetables. He said once they were ready to harvest, we would be able to eat what we had grown. I remember the days of going out there and watering, pulling weeds and assuring we kept the garden free from pests. My brother and I started noticing the sprouts growing out of the ground and of course we got so excited. As the days moved forward, the plants got larger, There were blossoms and eventually, we started to see the start of several kinds of vegetables. We had tomatoes, summer squash, zucchini, scallop squash, radishes, carrots and corn. Of course the corn stalks grew very tall. I remember we had cherry tomatoes and regular tomatoes. I remember seeing a huge green caterpillar type worm on the tomatoes. Of course my Dad got rid of that as he said it would eat the vegetables. I can't remember the time frame of our garden, but it grew an ample crop. I had seen vegetables in the market, but these that we were growing were huge. I remember my parents were so proud of the garden that they took pictures of us holding the bounty. The zucchini grew so large, I remember my Mom would cut one and put a meatloaf in it for dinner. I remember this was a time when we ate pretty good. We had grown so much, we could share with friends and they did.

As an adult, I tried growing my own vegetable gardens, but they were never as successful as our first one. Mine mostly grew tomatoes and zucchini. My carrots and radishes were always very small or would die out. My corn seemed to always grow deformed. I'm sure I was missing some sort of nutrient. When I would start growing my veggies, I would imagine I would get a bounty to share with friends. Only my tomatoes were friend worthy. However, I remember getting bounties of vegetables and fruits from relatives and friends. One of my favorite things to do to this day, is to go out into the garden and pick the tomatoes right off the vine and eat them while they are still warm from the sun. Those are still the most delicious tomatoes.

My Mom always had the most beautiful floral gardens. I would compare her gardens around her homes to the victorian gardens you see in magazines. There was one ground cover that she used to plant -- it was an ice plant that blossomed the brightest purple flowers. She always had that spreading across her lawns. My first recollection of seeing that kind of ice plant is on the hillsides in Palos Verdes, CA.

When I was 17 years old, I had a friend who was 25 years old. Her name was Pam. She had invited me to drive up the coast of California all the way up to Canada with her one summer. Oh what a joy and beautiful person she was. Once we went across the ferry into Canada to Victoria, she took me to the most beautiful garden I have ever seen on earth. I told her that the grass and the flowers were the most vibrant in color I had ever seen. I told her I imagine this is as close as we were going to get to the biblical Garden of Eden. To this day, I remember those beautiful gardens. Another lovely garden is located near Pasadena, CA called the Huntington Library Gardens. I first became familiar with this garden through an elementary field trip. I thought that was another beautiful garden -- like a small Garden of Eden.  I remember the fragrant rose garden there and the Japanese Tea House garden. It seems that when you are in a garden, it is so serene and quiet there. You can hear all the sounds of nature as you sit just enjoying the flowers and surrounding ponds. Birds in the pond, flying around and butterflies.

Sometimes, I sit and think how glorious the first garden must have been -- the Garden of Eden. Remember, there was a time where the earth just produced the beautiful blossoms, trees, fruits and vegetables without toil. Imagine a garden without bugs and weeds. How wonderful that would be. Well we know how that story ended up changing the overall plan of life here on earth. So now we toil the earth in order to enjoy the beauty of an organized display of landscaping.

My Mom has often compared her children and grandchildren as her garden. She watched us grow and blossom into who we became. I remember she also loved the movie Fantasia from Disney as her favorite part was of the dancing and singing garden. She also fell in love with the dancing hippos.

My favorite part of the Bible is when Jesus is talking about having faith the size of a mustard seed. Those seeds are so small, yet can produce the largest mustard plants. I've always been amazed how there is life just waiting to spring forth from those little seeds that look dead and insignificant. Yet with proper sun, water and care -- they come to life!! I also love all the metaphors used in the Bible in comparison to plants -- Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. We reap what we sow.  Fruit bearing vs non fruit bearing. Just to name a couple.

I think my very first experience with growing a seed was actually in Kindergarten, when the teacher brought in beans and we wet a paper towel and watched them sprout and then planted it into a paper cup, until the leaf would form. Then we took it home and forgot about it and it would die. I remember the initial fascination of seeing the bean sprout though.

I love how we can share the Gospel and "plant a seed" and possibly somewhere down the line or in that moment, God changes a heart and changes the direction of that person's life. Some develop the Fruits of the Spirit. -- Galations 5:22-23 (Love, Joy, Peace, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control)

"Then God said "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:11-12 (NKJV)