Religion of the Garden Variety – Part II

Gardens are very interesting places.  They are mysterious in that they necessitate death in order to bring forth life.   Waste of different types spurs growth.  One never knows what bounty a garden yields.  Upon entering a garden, most people immediately rejoice over the forthcoming harvest of fruit and vegetables.  They do not stop and consider the tremendous amount of work that someone put into the garden.  In flower gardens, people have the tendency to start picking the most colorful and vibrant pieces without regard for the labor, sacrifice or investment of the gardener.  A garden is the one remaining place on earth that captures some of the polar opposites of life: light and darkness, life and death, pleasing aromas and pungent odors, vibrancy and decay, reflective rest and tireless labor, sunshine and rain and winter and summer.  Their magnificence in composition, tasks and possibilities makes gardens one of the most majestic spaces to visit.

Gardens assuredly inflame our senses.  Our eyes rarely capture a garden’s beauty.  There is so much mystery and magnificence to behold that our very best efforts fail.  The sounds of crickets, birds, wind and perhaps snakes flood our ears.  Our nostrils flare because of the world wind tour on which a garden takes them.  Can you smell the manure?  However, necessary to a garden’s ecological system, the smell of fertilizer just stays with you, even after a number of showers.  What about the potent sweat that drenches the gardener’s clothes?  Although the signs of many public botanical gardens tell us not to touch the flowers, we cannot obey.  Our hands naturally grasp the beauty of the plants that our eyes observe.  Otherwise, the experience does not feel real.  As we touch, our mouths begin to water.  We imagine the refreshing and fulfilling taste of a cup of tea made from the flower petals that we grasp.  In a vegetable garden, we envision our favorite meat entrée served with the fresh and organic bounty that surrounds us.  By arousing our senses, gardens remind us most clearly that we are alive.

However, we miss a lot in gardens.  As we rush to admire the produce and calculate the harvest, we overlook one of the most beneficial aspects of any garden.  They are majestic spaces because they are very spiritual places.  In ways, gardens manifest the multidimensional character of Almighty God.  After all, it was in a garden that God establishes His primary relationship with humankind.

Yet, God embeds the spirituality of gardens in the mundane activities of their care.  The growth and productivity of garden heavily depend on the seasons.  The cycles of spring, summer, fall and winter determine the activities and possibilities.  A farmer must accept these inherent limits.  Should he ignore them, he does so at his own peril.  Nevertheless, he operates with the faith and assurance that the Creator will bestow sufficient grace, guidance and benevolence to yield a crop despite extremities and disappointments of any given season.

Gardens require considerable focus and discipline.  Growing tomatoes necessitate particular care to the soil and the burgeoning plants.  Often, tomato plants require the gardener to prop them up with individual sticks.  On the other hand, cucumbers grow very quickly and easily but only once in a planting season.  Thus, the gardener must plan ahead by planting enough seeds so that he reaps an adequate amount for pickles, salads, crudités, dressing and canning.  Squash can be planted twice.  Again, estimating the proper quantities can make or break a gardener’s profit.  Most cookouts start with the Memorial Day break but the corn is not ready until July.  The gardener has to wait.  Sometimes, he waits anxiously as the summer heat rises and scorches his projected crop.  Peanuts are a very dirty underground business in which little activity occurs above ground for quite some time.  Nevertheless, the gardener must remember to weed in that area and protect those seeds and emerging plants just as he would beans and peas.  Okra plants leave the gardener itching for days.  Like peanuts, potatoes, baking or sweet, require backbreaking work.  Needless to say, a gardener must possess an incredible work ethic in order to reap a harvest.

Then, there are the other intangible spiritual factors with which he contends.  The gardener accepts that the rain falls on his crops just as it falls on the gardens of others.  There are times when there is too little rain and there are times when there is way too much.  Nonetheless, the gardener must accept the reality that he cannot control the weather.  Likewise, when the early frost comes just before harvest or the blistering sun lingers in the midst of a drought, the gardener looks to the grand Creator of all life for grace, wisdom and kindness.