My Front Space Garden…

During a conversation with a dear friend today, it became clear that this season is revealing new growth in many ways. As a side note I highly recommend and pray that should you find yourself experiencing loss, change, or anything that disrupts your usual way of life, that you would welcome the opportunity to share your heart, thoughts, fears, frustrations, and more with a trusted friend or advisor. I am so grateful!

Two years ago (spring 2021) I had just returned from my trip to California for Ken’s Celebration of Life and a few weeks stay at my daughters’ home in Texas. I then took a solo trip to Holiday Island just a short drive north to spend the weekend with a new friend. As I was returning home I thought of how I wanted to do something to bring life to my small apartment home where Ken and I had just moved into less than a year before. This year would be my first spring without Ken and in a new place we had never lived together before. I had always enjoyed gardening and fresh flowers and so on the way back home I stopped at a roadside nursery and picked up a flowering plants. One of which was a Fuschia that had become a favorite of Ken’s and mine having picked up our first one on our Honeymoon. I returned home and prepared my front space garden AKA tiny area near my front door. Adding a few shepherd hooks, plant stand and festive adornments, my front space garden provided color, fragrance and enjoyment.

Of course the weather here in North West Arkansas is not conducive to potted flowering plants during the winter without a shelter and warmth. And so the plants try as they may succumbed to the frost. I tossed the remnants along with the pots and cleaned up my front area, soon to be covered with snow. The next season, last spring 2022 I prepared my front space garden once again, hanging potted flowering plants and added a hearty Rhododendron which I picked up at local nurseries. Instant color and foliage once again filled my front space garden. And once again as the weather changed the plants found themselves in a large garbage container that would take them to the landfill. But unlike the year before, I didn’t toss all the pots, some I kept with the soil and decaying roots through the harsh winter, allowing them to hang out and wait for spring where they might be repurposed, cracks and all.

My front space garden this year, (2023) includes the stick plant aka Rhododendron that has begun to sprout new leaves. Along with an array of last years’ pots that have been cleaned up, topped off with new soil and hold newly planted flower seeds. I also added a few new pots my front space garden. During these early weather changing times, the pots have at times been huddled together near an outside wall covered by a sheet when freezing days and nights threatened their seedlings. On warmer days they have been drinking up water and rotated to share their moment in the sun to encourage their seedlings to erupt from the soil. Some are displaying new delicate shoots breaking through the surface revealing a promise of flowers and new growth. The pots are joined by a collection of fairies, gnomes, painted rocks and other figures are strategically arranged by my young neighbor. My front space garden looks a bit barren and unfinished, but like me it is growing, a work in progress.

What I discovered today in this third season of adding life and color to my front space garden is that there has been a process of change and growth both in my garden and my own personal life. In the first season I filled my space with memories, color and fully matured flowering plants, instant and enjoyable, assembled easily without a lot of thought or effort. But when the winter came and all plants had died, I tossed the broken plants along with the containers. In the second year of preparing for spring, I once again filled my front space garden with mature flowering plants, but added a few new options and at the end of the season instead of throwing out all the pots I kept some along with a leafless, dead stick plant that I thought just might come back the next season.

And here I am today, this third spring season approaching my front space garden with the same intentions of filling the view with color and beauty, while providing food and covering for butterflies, hummingbirds, ladybugs and other delightful creatures. Anticipating the fragrance of each new flower, most of which I have no idea will be having planted a variety of flowers. And while it will take some time to experience the beauty and fragrance, I am taking in the earthy scent of potting soil, regarding the most unusual looking seeds wondering what they will become, and watching in excitement as each new sprout breaks through the soil. All the while protecting these precious future flowers from the elements, keeping them watered and in the life giving sun during the day. Also keeping the squirrels out of the pots by sprinkling dry coffee grounds on the soil surface, it really does work! Each day I check on these little sprouts and seedlings, have planted more seeds and am filled with awe and joy as I await the arrival of their full array of beauty that will fill my front yard space.

During this new season I am getting my hands dirty, literally, and enjoying the process of cultivating, and joyfully anticipating what will come from the rich soil and the unusual looking seeds that have been pushed into the soil beneath. My front space garden is experiencing a new season of growth much like my own personal growth and season. In the beginning of this third year I am ready and eagerly inviting the master gardener (God) to plant, nurture, cultivate, repurpose and prepare me for the bouquet of whatever he desires in and through me.

Not too long ago I needed a ready to enjoy array of flowering beauty from my front window where the fragrance attracted butterflies, hummingbirds and bees and provided so much life to appreciate. God knew what I needed then and provided the most beautiful arrangements and memorable flowering plants for me to enjoy. As I consider the seasons of my front space garden, I realize a parallel in how much God has literally provided all that I need in this new life on my own. At times without much effort on my part, other times granting me some space and time to work things out, as well as new opportunities where he encourages me to dig in and create something new.

In these past two years God has helped me to remember how much I enjoy this new season of new growth. At this time I am not needing an instant full array in front of me, but have the time and patience to consider and wait for new growth to emerge. Where I am blessed to be a part of nurturing, cultivating and sharing with others as well from my front space garden and beyond.

Thank you for sharing with me in this journey and new season of my life.

May God Bless you as you grow in your own personal front space garden.

Pati

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“Consider how the wild flowers grow, they do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you – you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” Luke 12:27-31.