Gardening is a joy and a challenge for me and these are books that have kept me interested and hopeful as I challenge myself to grow food and flowers.

The kiss of the sun for pardon, the song of the birds for mirth, — One is nearer God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth.

Dorothy Frances Gurney

Second Nature by Michael Pollan. I enjoyed this book very much. It gave me so many new thoughts about why we plant, fertilize and mow lawns so faithfully. What does the landscape around my home say about me? And what did God mean when he told Adam to dress and keep the garden? There were so many new things to think about. The author takes you on a journey from his earliest garden memories to creating a yard and gardens out of a rocky, hilly, weedy rundown farm in the northeast United States. It is not a how-to as such, more like philosophical essays about the history of gardening and an examination of our expectations. Although written by a journalist, the style is entertaining and easy to read.

It sometimes seems as if Nature has singled out the garden for special attention. That’s because the ‘vacuum’ here is greatest. Here the soil is richest and most frequently disturbed: what softer, sweeter, more hospitable bed could an airborne weed ever find to lay down in?

Rather than tame the landscape entirely, it might be better to make something of it’s rankness… whatever drama this garden possesses seems to turn on the tension between two kinds of spaces — the carefully constructed proofs of my labor…and the landscapes ceaseless drive to negate them.

Quotes from Second Nature, by Michael Pollan

I have used this book three years now to plan my garden. Melissa lives in Washington and her seasons are a lot like my part of Montana. This book inspires me to stay on top of garden jobs and to make the most of my time spent growing food.

This lovey, illustrated book about chickens also has information about growing greens, vegetables and herbs for your hens. According to the author, chickens and gardens are natural companions. Lisa grows lots of things just for her chickens, and tells how you can, too.

I haven’t read this book but I want to! I drink herbal teas nearly every day and would love to learn to grow and dry my own ingredients. Maybe this is the year to begin.

This book teaches about humility, using the garden as a metaphor. The author shares her successes and failures in the garden and in life, and invites us to consider the lilies along with her, and so find rest in God’s care.

You long to be out in the garden and it just isn’t possible. Try this classic to get through the windy, rainy spring days.

All these books can be bought on Amazon.

And the Garden Tip

My husband stopped to visit Blue Mountain Dave, the trucker, and while they talked, his wife offered me a tour of her garden. I followed her flowy dress and tinkling bangles down the garden path as she pointed out and named her vegetables. As we were leaving the garden, she said, “I always ask God to bless my garden when I am here.” Then she spread her arms a bit and spoke to Him as if he stood there beside us.

I was humbled and delighted with this idea. I knew how to work hard in the garden, worry about frost, and battle bugs and weeds; but I had never asked God to bless my garden.

It felt awkward at first. I was more accustomed to praying at my bedside than on my knees in the garden, under the open sky. But I asked God to please bless my garden and I kept at it. Talking to God became a natural extension of being in the garden. He planted a garden himself back in the beginning. The garden became a place to see his handiwork unfold. Communion with him made me feel even more tender to my baby plants; the bees buzzing in the raspberries were laborers together with us. Somehow, it seemed easier to be diligent about weeds. And in the garden, I am often in a good position to pray- on my knees.

For the earth which drinks in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and brings forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receives blessing from God.

Hebrews 6:7

I asked God to bless the garden, to give me a harvest. This may be the food we have to eat this winter, I reminded him. As if he didn’t know. But I found myself thankful for any harvest – whether it was enough for one meal or many. I was surprised with a desire to share. When the cabbages made a bumper crop, we gave some away and ate our share with thanksgiving. The beans were set back by deer, but he knew it. The frost held off enough to let them recover and give me a small crop. Who can complain when you have been daily in the garden praying for a blessing? Who needed to worry about the future?

God had always been near in the garden. I just hadn’t been able to see him until I started a conversation with him. Now we meet there and he feeds both body and soul.

What books do you read to keep your garden ideas flourishing? What is your favorite garden tip?

-Liz

Want to read more? Click below:

The Ideal Life

The Language of Flowers

The Oak (a poem)