Dear Gardeners,
Best of the summer to you! Hope your garden is pretty and productive as the peak of the season is here, and even better, a happy backdrop to family gatherings.
For the first part of our summer, it was all things *fig* when the intriguing fruits of this Biblical tree ripened crazily. Picking them fresh from the lush branches of our backyard tree has a treasure-hunt quality, as their softened, deep-purple readiness hides under the big-lobed fig leaves. The fruits kept coming! Our tree branches have sprawled over the back fence, communicating that the vitality of fig trees is as vigorous as grapevines, mentioned as a pair in many Scriptures (1 Kings 4:25, Zechariah 3:10, Micah 4:4) and a horticultural hint to the heritage of God’s vivacious devotion and blessing for each and every household.
The end of the harvest I left for the squirrels: Our first granddaughter arrived! My husband, Topher, and I were so excited when she was born in early July, just after Independence Day. She has captured our hearts, and we thank God for her healthy delivery. The Lord’s loving coziness has surrounded our daughter and son-in-law as they both have time off from work to cherish her in these newborn weeks. I love being on call in the afternoons to help while they catch up on sleep, my gardening gratefully giving way to babyholding. Thank you, Lord, for such sweet time!
Yes, I will get back to work later this month with a fruitful trip to FARWEST Portland with GardenComm in Oregon. My fellow garden writers and I are ready to join industry propagators and producers at this renown trade show, gab over garden stories, and tour local gardens and nurseries in the region.
First stop: a reunion with my Garden Prayer Warriors, the precious group of women, friends of my mom and friends-of-friends, who covered me in prayer when the Lord launched me into writing for Him and preparing God’s Word for Gardeners Bible. How grateful I am for their prayer covering! Come join us for a Coffee Meet-Up if you are in the Portland-Vancouver area on August 26th, and we can chat about all things faith and gardening and growing old together.
Enjoy a few snapshots below and find pockets of inspiration in Blurbs & Praises. God’s best to you for the rest of summer!
Sincerely,
Shelley S. Cramm
author & gardener
You’re here to bear fruit, reproduce, lavish life on Earth, live bountifully! Genesis 9:7 The Message
From the Homeland
Field Trip to Botanica, The Wichita Gardens, Wichita, KS
Though most of our summer has been homebound, waiting to hold our new grandbaby, Topher and I went north on a quick trip to Kansas, where we normally travel during the winter hunting season. Take me to the gardens, please! I wailed; I have longed to see Botanica, The Wichita Gardens during a warmer time of year. This impeccable landscape proved worth the wait! Shady pathways were inviting on the hot afternoon, and perennial and annual flower beds seemed to hold up fine under the blazing prairie sky. Hats off to the faithful caregivers of these “pleasure grounds”; their attentiveness can be sensed across the gardens (Genesis 2:15).
Catch summer views of select Biblical species in this zone 6 showcase, including a potted fig tree in the Sensory Garden, where handsome raised stone planters overflow with a variety of herbs, full and lush with scented leaves to touch and see. A broad hedge of dramatically deep-purple ornamental millet lines the way to many juniper trees on display in the Schnitzler Juniper Collection. Though the Holy Land species, Juniperus excelsa, does not grow here (Isaiah 55:13), many other specimens create a conifer canopy in this woodsy section of the garden.
My favorite sights were the massive mulberry trees, Morus alba, lending their formidable stature and welcome shade—see one of them pictured over my right shoulder. White mulberries are similar to the black mulberry of Scripture, Morus nigra, native to the Middle East. With their trunks appearing so substantial and immovable, they prompt wonder at Jesus’ promise: “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you (Luke 17:6). Drawing close to God in this wonderful, sheltered garden struck me with how much we have been commissioned to care for in moving prayers.
Find more about growing mulberry trees, figs, junipers, and herbs in the Garden in Delight Plant Guide.
From the Nightstand
Summer titles to keep us grounded and moving
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The Coastal Garden by Victoria Clarke, Commissioning Editor (another photographic gem from Phaidon Press, this panorama of seaside landscapes satisfies a longing for gardening brushed by sea breezes; picturesque for the coffee table and packed with botanical pairings to borrow from extraordinary views)
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Revolution by Eric Metaxas (what a blessing to have this revelation of the revolution that formed our nation by one of the most invigorating authors of our time; a remarkable book for engaging our 250th landmark)
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Far From Unremarkable by Laura Joy Lloyd (second in this series, my dear friend and colleague continues to enthrall with the endearing lives of small-town, coastal neighbors – get to know the author when she interviewed me last summer, part 1 and part 2)
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Prayer in Motion by Jennifer Tucker (dig into a life seeking God in “every moment, every movement” as quoted from her Introduction, with this beautiful, practical book on prayer, which echoes the garden lifestyle)
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Rooted in Grace by Sanda Valcu (Gardeners, we have found a soil sister! Enjoy this gentle leading in reflections of God’s Word through garden practices from a new faith and gardening author in Texas)
“I grew up around gardens—my parents worked the soil hard…it’s only now that I get it as I too experience the kind of freedom that only being out in your garden can give.” Sanda Valcu
Find in-depth summer book reviews in the Devotions Blog at Garden in Delight.
From the Garden
We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. Numbers 11:5 NIV
The cries of the Israelites continue to delight in the garden this summer as cucumbers answer the call (see onions and garlic in last season’s Spring News), yielding plenty of produce for salads and side dishes, and inspiring a new plunge into pickle-making, powerfully compelling! See Pickle Recipe for Prayer in July’s Devotions Blog.
Gardens today host cultivars of Cucumis sativus, related to the vine-grown vegetables of ancient Egypt, most likely Cucurbita pepe var. flexusus, according to Dr. Lytton Musselman, author of Figs, Dates, Laurel, and Myrrh, who wrote the Foreword for my book My Father is the Gardener, where you can read more on cucumbers in chapter 9.
With the Israelites’ rescue from Egypt as a Biblical backdrop, cucumber crispness refreshes in sizzling summers and connects readily to imagining how the searing, unfamiliar, post-slavery life of the Sinai Desert, scarcely tempered by a plain, predictable, manna diet, tested the Israelites (Deuteronomy 8:3), causing their doubt in God’s plan to deliver them. Who wouldn’t murmur at remembering such tasty summer produce?
This spring I sowed ‘Marketmore’ seeds from Botanical Interests and trained the young vines to grow up tripod-type trellises made from tree branches. This is my favorite way to grow them in our small suburban garden, staked among herbs and summer flowers. Cucumbers have a fanciful, hide-and-seek quality to their fruitfulness, as budding produce can be coy behind vines’ broadleaves. May their playfulness distract us from summer’s heat and keep complaints from overtaking us.
Gather more growing tips and garden-to-table ideas in the Garden in Delight Plant Guide, and remember the pickles!
Blurbs & Praises
Garden in Delight celebrates America’s 250th birthday
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enjoy gardening, faith, and freedom in these Devotions Blogs: The Bible’s Red, White, and Blue; Sacred Gardens in DC; America’s Bible Gardens; Parable of the Sower Revival Prayer Guide
Refresh with a Poem
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Dig into figs, the “fruit of revolution,” with poetic sing-song from the A-to-Z Primer of Plants in God’s Word
Looking Forward to the Biblical Feasts
The fall Biblical feasts are less than 40 days away, beginning with Yom Teruah/Rosh HoShanah on the eve of September 11th. Learn more about observing Biblical feast in garden ways in the Devotions Blog
Summer Prayer
O Lord, from this season of freedom and fruitfulness, we praise You! For fruit crops and vegetable bounties, we praise You! Thank You that those who forged and founded this nation trusted in You and looked to You and treasured Your freedom enough to establish it as a manner of governance. In this 250th jubilee year, let us turn from grumbling to guarding and move obstacles through prayer as You have taught us in cucumbers and mulberry trees.
And we thank You that even if this summer has been a barren season, still, Your decision to bless is ever-present in Your Word (Haggai 2:19). Any period of waiting can revolve to a time of entwining our hearts with Yours (Isaiah 40:31)—let all the vines proclaim Your ways! O Lord, let us take the patterns of the garden to heart and cultivate a deeper trust in You.
Make us ready for Your mightiness, knowing Your magnificence is waiting to be treasured and discovered (Isaiah 45:3). In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
