By now the old year is old news, but with a house happily full of family over Christmas to New Year’s, I did not get the chance to send out a wrap-up of 2025. Happy Old Year! The Garden in Delight Devotions Blog covered a lot of ground from last February to December, and checked many “always wanted to-do” boxes, thank You, Lord!
…including making a wreath from our bay laurel tree (well, it is technically still a shrub, I think!) before bad weather hits and withers it back to the ground. I gladly passed this gift on to a special friend, and then chuckled that the weather has yet to get cold enough for soup OR freezing the little tree. At least the gift will be aromatic until useful!
On to our work at hand: Scroll the year’s topics below and “click” in case there was one you missed or want to circle back to, now that holiday hubbub is slowed to a quiet whirl:
Garden Design: add Planting Fall Crocus to your bulb display and kitchen spice from Isaiah 35 and look Beyond Boxwood in Isaiah 41 to new shrub choices from ProvenWinners ColorChoice Shrubs
Gardens to Visit: see Plants of the Bible Conservatory in KY and The Met-Cloisters garden in NY; now all of America’s Bible Gardens are kept on an ever-updated list on the Potting Bench (finally this to-do is done!)
Garden Recipes: at long last, a taste of Figgy Pudding! Be sure to read this before your fig harvest this summer; and a host of bread recipes in the Lenten series…
Lenten Series: A Lenten Look at Bread drew us closer to Christ through this powerful harvest metaphor; reminder that these Lenten Series of 7 studies make excellent, focused meditations for any time of year
Garden Poetry: The A-to-Z Primer of Plants from God’s Word is nearly complete with the addition of “K is for Kingdom”
Updated Research: Deep Dig into Dove’s Dung reveals recent research on this elusive plant and an update to chapter 15 of My Father is the Gardener
Garden Prayer: honor the National Day of Prayer, garden-style; Remembering George Washington Carver’s Passion puts us humbly in a posture of prayer to God
Grow your Faith: What Eve Should Have Said offers a deeper garden revelation; First Glimpse, First Grapes asks pruning questions from an Old Testament passage; Bells and Pomegranates resounds the gifts and fruit of Holy Spirit; Evergreen Lampstand gives insight into a classic Christmas-bough Scripture
Newsletters on Substack: try these Biblical houseplants in Winter 2025; adorn your mustards with alyssum in Spring 2025; castor bean catastrophe in Summer 2025; dramatic ornamental millet in Autumn 2025. Handy links to all former newsletters are available on the Garden in Delight News page. As a reminder, subscribing to my newsletter is a separate sign-up through Substack – click here to follow me on Substack
Next Up: Lenten Series 2026
The Devotions Blog retreats for the winter (although my Texas weather is bewilderingly springlike so far!), returning with a new Lent Series in mid-February. The Lord slipped a special idea in my mind to draw closer to Him through this sacred season by lingering in the “Plants of Jesus’ Path.” The series will take us through the last plants Jesus interacted with before His crucifixion. Most of these species will be old friends to us by now, dear Gardeners, yet to consider them in a series of 7 leading up to His unfathomable sacrifice for us will a fresh perspective and the inimitable a little closer to hand and heart.
Adding an In-Person Experience
As a special bonus, a dear neighbor has invited me to talk on these plants each week at her home, a marvelous new opportunity to share the Devotions Blog personally. Please contact me if you are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and want to attend on Thursday afternoons
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 18th
Plants of Jesus’ Path begins Thursday, February 19th
Happy New Year
Beyond the weekly Lenten Series blogs, my articles will switch to a once-a-month schedule beginning in May. My writing life is increasingly devoted to traveling and speaking, so I am grateful to re-balance my time to focus on writing in a monthly routine. In what ways are you streamlining your life this year? Our constant God quite often changes things up! I love to remember this much quoted Word as the New Year is underway:
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:19 NIV
Blessing you to a way through your wilderness in this new year, beloved of God!
Closing Prayer
O Lord, thank You for the blessings You put in our lives, and the special moments celebrating our Savior’s birth. Help us every day to be reborn to the bounty we have in being rescued by You and set firmly in Your godly ways. Lord, as we have lingered in the twelve days of Christmas and beyond, and may still have decorations to put away, help us to cherish Your story every day. How amazing that Your epic sacrifice of saving each one of us began in such humble circumstances. It might have gone missed altogether, yet the angels and the stars couldn’t help but proclaim—the skies gave You away, Lord! Thank You for my gardener’s point of view that leads me to all the ways that the earth heralds You, too! I pray to draw closer to You in all that I do. You are my ever-present help, my rock in every change-of-plans, and my mulberry mover. May I embrace You, O Lord is Peace. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 1:7 NKJV
THANK YOU for your huge support of My Father is the Gardener this gift-giving season! So many more copies are in the hands of garden readers thanks to your help in spreading the Word!
What a year for the Devotions Blog with the Silver Media Award presented this summer! THANK YOU for being a faithful audience and inspiring me to keep writing!
Photo Credits: Shelley S. Cramm
NIV denotes Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®
NKJV denotes Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
