He Is Happiest Who.....

Some days the bugs can really get you down. I find this is especially true on long summer days when tomato hornworms demolish your best tomato plants and spider mites suck the life out of your lemongrass. Experienced gardeners learn over time not to take these attacks personally.They know that when one plant flounders another will jump in and flourish in its place.

This week I watered my garden thoroughly and then packed the car and drove away for a few days. I'm trying not to worry about what is going on back home and hoping the neighbors came by and helped themselves to some cucumbers and squash.

Meanwhile I have been enjoying the gardens far from home in NYC and Brooklyn. I am learning a lot about small space gardens here and the importance of picking the right plants for the right places. In New York City every inch of space counts and there is no room for error. Color and style abound from postage stamp sized front stoops, window boxes, fire escapes and even the sidewalk cracks..

One of the most delightful gardens I have visited here is the Children's Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. This garden has thoughtfully planted soft grassy spaces for toddlers to sprawl in, and whimsical child-sized seats hidden under long draping boughs of weeping mulberry. There are scented and soft silvery petting plants. There are tiny herb gardens, interactive waterfalls and a dark cool grove of giant bamboo for curious kiddos to discover.

There is also a spacious vegetable garden planted in the children's area. This lush vegetable garden is impeccably maintained with rows and rows of plants. The wide and bountiful rows are absolutely bursting with great big cabbages and all manner of produce plants. Unfortunately for me this garden taunts grown up gardeners from the other side of a picketed gate stenciled with a stern warning:, "children only past this point".
A ten foot topiary spider of ivy and iron stands guard as children enter this whimsical retreat . I couldn't help wondering how many new horticulturalists there would be in the future because of this magical place. It was obvious by all the happy little patrons I saw skipping through the space that the garden was indeed capturing the imaginations and hearts of many children the day we visited.

As we were leaving the Children's Garden I glanced back to see a group of children busily gardening under the careful guidance of several young garden volunteers. Children were flitting like bees in and out of a small building oblivious to the message poignantly chiseled in the limestone lintel above the door. The message said.."HE IS HAPPIEST WHO HATH POWER TO GATHER WISDOM FROM A FLOWER".

That message makes me smile. I especially smile when I think of all the profound things God has taught me in a garden. I hope you too have been able on occasion to hear God speak through nature. If not, then I suspect you are not listening, for God's voice is unmistakable there as he shouts from tenacious little seedlings and whispers in the winding tendrils of a vine. Sometimes He screams words of wisdom from a trail of garden ants, or mutters sweet nothings under the falling petals of a pear tree.

If you want to know what God is saying, I recommend spending some time in a quiet garden spot. I am pretty certain that you will come away agreeing with the stone mason's message carved above that door way....that he is happiest who hath power to gather wisdom from a flower.