Walking with God in the garden

In front of my city-sized lot runs a thoroughfare crawling with bumper-to-bumper traffic come rush hour. But 75 yards back, behind our 1950s ranch, blooms three-dozen varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers. I’m not alone in finding perspective, peace, and God’s companionship and healing in my garden – a sort of blooming, body and soul, amidst a technology-saturated world. Of course, frequenting the sacraments and adoration chapel, nurturing a rich prayer life, meditating on scripture, are foundational. But for a nice pastime to enrich one’s walk in faith, gardening is ideal. With gardens offering retreat-like benefits along with countless practical perks, it’s no wonder the National Gardening Association (NGA) cites Americans as “consistently rating gardening as a favorite hobby.” In fact, NGA statistics show a 19% increase in Americans planning to grow edibles from 2008 to 2009.

Of course, one stimulus to such enthusiasm might be recession. A nicely maintained food garden yields an average $500 return, according to NGA. Adding a few new perennials like asparagus, chives or rhubarb yearly expands a base of nice varieties to harvest early spring through late October. Growing annual seeds indoors to plant outside early spring is a cheerful, winter’s end project that also helps cut food costs dramatically.

I find the practical and esthetical blend of gardens irresistible. Phenomenal changes occur daily, and sometimes, even hourly. Early morning squash blossoms expand, begging to be stuffed with cheese, dredged in egg and flour, and stir-fried into a gourmet delicacy. Snap peas unready to pick at 7 a.m., plump by dinner.

I’ve lost my fear of bees, since we so nicely coexist. Robins and mourning doves flit by, unfazed by my now-familiar presence. The neighbor dog “Buck” pops his dark, Labrador head over the fence to grin, until I give him a friendly pat.

As for the plants, clearing riotous weeds to reveal order seems allegorical. Learning a “green thumb” is not genetic as much as developed through persistence, trial and error, and following wise advice from more experienced gardeners, is heartening.

I’ve had summers growing tomatoes lush with foliage but bare of fruit, planting seeds that refused germination, babying green peppers that spread leaves but refused to flower or bear. But for the past several years, my mini, raised-bed gardens, have flourished.

After a friend recommended Mel Bartholomew’s method of “ Square Foot Gardening ” a few years ago, I devised manageable plots in raised beds. Amending soil with equal portions of compost, peat and vermiculite, made it fluffy and amenable to tender plants. (I later learned people are raising health concerns over vermiculite, so I’ve switched to perlite , an amorphous volcanic glass.) Such methods make gardening accessible to the elderly, very young, developmentally disabled, people recovering from illness -- even those with severe physical limitations.

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I’ve lived in Carlsbad CA for about six months now, And I can’t find a single store that sells band shirts of good skinny jeans. There was a store back in Long Beach that sold Dogpile brand stretch jeans and band shirts like Rudimentary Peni and Subhumans, But I haven’t found any here yet. Any stores or suggestions would be much appreciated.

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