Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend it. Gen 2:15

Gardens and yards have always been in my memories. My first memory is of being in the back yard of my family’s first home. It must have been after a heavy rain for a rivalette of water had cut a path through the grass revealing tiny stones along its bank. A magic world opened before me.

I shared this memory with my older sister a while back musing over the tall tress that enclosed this private world. There was a long quiet while I looked back into that place. Finally she said, “You were very small, so I guess the trees would have seemed tall to you.”

And so they did! How glad I am for my memory with child-size rivers and rocks and grass to capture my young soul with wonder and beauty.

Years later I would listen to my mother refrer back to that yard in wonder – “You could grow anything there!” And the litany of flowers and Victory Garden offerings would follow. This, of course, was in contrast to the yard around us of hard clay. They worked and coaxed and composted and supplemented and tended. It was hard work but they persisted and were rewarded.

I now tend gardens, not everything I plant grows. Plants mysteriously disappear in winter, vacation somewhere and sometimes return years later having taken up residence in another part of the yard!

It is a wild place where we do battle with deer and racoons and rabbits and the occasional ground hog and thorns and thistles, too. But still we tend and the first harvest is a special delight even if it is only radishes!

Recently my friend took me to visit a secret garden and I was so delighted to visit this beautiful place tended with love. I’m glad I took my camera so that I could share a bit with you.