Have you ever driven by a house or walked by an area in a park and seen just drop dead gorgeousness and think, “I could never make my yard look like that”?
The reality is, you absolutely can do that.
Planting a garden is a craft and a process. It’s both really easy and semi difficult at the same time. Truly, anyone can plant a garden but if they don’t go through a certain process and learn certain truths, and patiently wait for the plants to grow in their season, they aren’t going to get the results they want.
Over the past few years I have learned so much about gardening from my precious friend.
Y’all, Anna has the gift. She’s got the gardening skillz. Her yard is B.E.A-YOU-TI-FUL.
But it’s been a process. Her yard did not look this way when we moved in next door 12 years ago. It was a basic “burbs” kind of yard with the basic burbs grass and the basic burbs bushes that flower once and then just provide some either misshapen or very manicured green depending on the burbs homeowner’s dedication to pruning.
But years back Anna decided she wanted something more beautiful out of her yard. She decided she wanted a place where she and her family and her crazy neighbors could come and sit and drink and eat and hang and laugh. She took the time to invest and grow her knowledge in her amazing obsession with all things plants. She learned, she planned and then she planted and now it’s like living in the Denver Botanical Gardens but out in the burbs.
And during the process, I sat and watched and listened and asked and learned….and then I planned and planted in our front yard.
There are similarities and differences in our front yards.
Similarities…..
We live next door to each other which means we both face north. Ok, I know this ain’t a thing in the south but in Colorado, facing north means you will have snow and ice in your yard all winter long. I’m serious y’all……we will have a foot of snow in our front yards yet the neighbors directly across the street will have green grass growing in the spring sun in their yards. It’s crazy.
We also have the same dirt in our yard. We have the same clay kind of soil. Awesome (not really).
We live in the same zone. Denver is zone 5b in the plant world but because we face north, we have a microclimate of zone 4. (Basic zone knowledge, the warmer the zone, the higher the number. The cooler the zone, the lower the number. You can look your zone up on the Googles :-))
And then we have a couple differences, the biggest of which is that Anna’s yard gets tons of sun while we have a HUGE tree in our front yard which gives us glorious shade.
Before you dive in and start your own garden, you have to make a plan
Here’s the planning basics that I have learned from my precious friend.
- You have to shop for plants for your zone. If you live in Zone 5b but have a microclimate of Zone 4 because you face north, and you want plants to come back every single year (perennials), then you need to plant plants that like the Zone 4 climate. Otherwise they get mad at you and don’t come back the next year.
- You have to decide if you want annuals or perennials. Perennials come back year after year. Annuals are just that….they are for one year, and then you replant the next year. I’m cheap….I like to invest once and see beauty for years :-).
- You have to choose plants that like the environment that you are providing. Anna has lots of sun so she has lots of plants that need full sun to be happy. We on the other hand have a fabulously huge tree which provides a ton of shade so I have chosen and planted plants that like part sun and part shade or even full shade.
- You have to put plants together that enjoy similar soil and water. For example, a couple of my plants don’t like much water and need more sandy and rocky soil while many others like regular watering (don’t say “moist” hehehehe). If I put a water loving plant next to a dry loving plant, one of them is going to get mad at me and die depending on what I do….to water or not to water.
- You have to look at the tag. You have to read to see how big or small the plant will be. You have to take a second to learn a little about the plant to make sure it will grow well in your garden. You don’t want to put a plant that will grow 6 inches high behind a plant that will grow 24 inches high because you will not get to see that little 6 inch darlin’ in all her glory when she blooms because the tall one will be blocking her out. And you don’t want to stunt her growth because the tall one is blocking out the sun she needs.
- Some plants bloom in spring. Some bloom in summer and some bloom in fall. If you want a garden that has beautiful flowering color from spring to fall, you have to plant different plants for different seasons.
So you learn the basics, you plan out what you want things to look like when the garden is finished, and then you go to the nursery for some plant therapy and make plant choices out of horticultural wisdom and not willy-nilly excitement about how pretty they look at the nursery. Then you bring those little darlins home and you lovingly plant them in places that will hopefully make them the most happy and help them to reveal their God given beauty.
Life is a lot like a garden.
Have you ever met a person or had an encounter with a group of people and seen life transforming peace and hope and joy and think “I could never get that in my life”?
Planting a life filled with hope and peace and joy is both really easy and kinda difficult at the same time. Truly anyone can have these things in their life but if they don’t go through a process and learn certain truths and patiently wait for growth, they aren’t going to get the results they want.
First, we have to boldly accept the truth that true life changing, life altering hope and peace and joy is not possible without a walking, talking, growing relationship with Jesus. Peace, Love and Joy come from Him. He is joy, He is peace, He is hope and without Him, you can never truly experience the complete and total fullness of any of these things. You can experience these things in part. You can have seasons. You can have moments. But a life lived in the fullness of these three things can only be found through Him. I’ve tried. It doesn’t work without a daily, walking, talking, faith relationship with Him.
Sadly there are a lot of church folk out there who are hopeless and peace-less and joyless because they once had an experience and “accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior” but after that experience they never listened, or they were never taught, or they never learned or they never accepted that there is a process or they never invested in the process. Just like in gardening, there is a spiritual process that each and every person has to go through to grow and mature and get the results we want. To live a life consumed in the fullness of peace, love and joy of the Lord, you have to invest in the process God has set before us to get the results and the life you want.
Over the years I have learned so much about growing in the Lord from precious friends in each and every season in my life.
I’ve got friends who have got the Gift. They have chosen and invested and walked and learned and applied and they know how to live a life in the fullness of the peace, love, and joy of the Lord. Their souls and their lives are B.E.A-YOU-TI-FUL.
But it’s been a process. Their lives have not always looked like this. They have come from lives filled with good things and momentary hope and momentary peace and momentary joy but they have also lived lives filled with hopelessness, pain, fear, anger, strife, gossip, betrayal, abuse and hurt. They were at times able to create an illusion of a life that looked like “the American Dream” with success and smiles and friendships. They showed up at church perfectly dressed with big smiles on their faces but they were exhausted from the work, the unending hauling of a yolk that was too heavy for them….all to keep life looking this “perfect” way while they were still hopeless, peace-less, joyless on inside.
Then they decided they wanted something more beautiful out of their lives. They each wanted to live a life based in God’s truths so they could grow in true love and joy and peace and truly affect the lives of their families and neighbors and community and world the way the Lord intended. They decided they wanted the glory and beauty of the Lord to shine through them. So they took the time to invest and grow their knowledge and experience in their amazing obsession with all things God. They learned. They listened to the Lord. They planned and they planted God’s truths in their lives. And now, with time and patience and trust in God, their lives shine the growth and glory and beauty of the Lord no matter where He planted them in this world. No matter what the exterior circumstances of their lives currently try to dictate, they have love, joy and peace that comes only from Jesus.
And during these processes, I sat and watched and listened and asked and learned….and then I planned and planted in my life.
There are similarities and differences in our lives.
Some of us grew up in the burbs. Some grew up in inner cities. Some of us grew up in a privileged world. Some of us grew up fighting for everything, every victory, every success, every promotion. Some of us had parents who loved us. Some didn’t know their parents or if they did it was through hurt and pain. Some of us knew plenty and some of us knew want. Some of us were loved for our skin color or physical appearance, and some were hated because of theirs. Some of us knew hunger and some of us only knew full bellies. Some of us were given education. Some of us barely scraped out of high school. Some of us have kids. Some of us know infertility. Some of us are married. Some of us are single. Some of us are divorced. Some of us have amazing marriages and some of us only know hurt and pain in our marriage. Some of us have kids that are amazing. Some of us have kids that bring us hurt and pain. Some of us know and have experienced the horrors of abuse, rape, anger, emotional abuse. Some of us are blessed to have never experienced these things.
But no matter our similarities and differences, there are a few basics I have learned from the lives of these amazing women.
- You have to plant your life in the right zone. Just like there are climate zones in gardening, there are zones of life. Some zones are in God’s truth and will and many zones are out of God’s truth and will. It’s that whole narrow vs wide path that Jesus talks about with His disciples. (Matt 7:13-14) If you are looking for God’s blessings but you are living your live outside of God’s zone, outside of God’s truths, outside of God’s will…. your work, efforts and dedications will not bring you the growth and joy and peace you are wanting. You have to choose the habits, the fruits, and the plants that reflect the peace, hope and love of Jesus and firmly and purposefully plant your life in God’s zones. Even more specifically, you have to plant in a zone where God calls you to plant, not where He calls someone else to plant.
- You have to decide if God is an annual or perennial in your life. Are you an annual, “Easter and Christmas Christian” who only accepts and follows Jesus for a day or two a year? Or are you a perennial follower of Jesus? Are you living your life in a way that you have a walking, talking relationship with the Creator of the Universe and a life where God is always part of it day after day, year after year after year?
- You will end up getting growth in accordance to the environment that you are providing. Are you are providing an environment of love for all God’s kids and trust in the Lord that He can handle anything you can’t? Or are you providing an environment of legalism for those you love? Are you providing an environment of hate for the people who do not choose the Lord instead of providing an environment where you truly love for all God’s kids yet can hate the path they choose that takes them boldly out of God’s will? In a nutshell are you letting the love of Jesus flow through you to others and then you let go and allow God take care of the rest……. or are you a proud card carrying member of the Jerks for Jesus country club?
- Are you daily reading and studying and learning the tag/the manual/God’s Word? If you are not taking the time to invest in learning what God has to say through His Word that He gave us as a gift which is applicable to all generations and is the living and breathing Word of God, then you will never understand His heart. You will never understand when, where or how to plant for Him. You will never grow in maturity past having a pastor or bible study leader or Christian book writer teach you, only to have those words or thoughts fall out of your head before reaching the first stoplight outside of church or as soon as you get up from reading and walk into the messy and sticky kitchen. If you do not choose to daily invest in God’s Word, you will not grow in the full glory and beauty that God intended for your life.
- We bloom at different times. A spring blooming tulip does not yell at the fall blooming aster and say “Why aren’t you flowering yet?!?!?!”. That tulip does what God made her to do and lives in the beauty that God gave her and then moves aside for the aster to bloom and live in her God given beauty and glory. They do not compare their lives and their seasons with the other and neither should we. If we have invested our lives in becoming more like Jesus then our heart becomes to encourage others to invest and learn and grow so that we can all bloom and live in our God given glory and beauty. And then we are to step aside and let others shine in their God given season and their given zone without comparing their God given beauty to ours.
It’s a process y’all!
A garden does not happen in one day. I write these steps and am reminded of the places where I have grown and I can also still see the places that need some serious work. But just like a garden, I’m not finished. You are not finished. The beauty of a garden is that if you need to transplant, prune, remove or fertilize your horticultural babies…..you CAN! You plant and then you might move some plants and then you might need to plant something new because one of your plants died. The same thing is true in life. We strive towards Jesus. We live the process but then when we totally screw up….. I mean me…I am sure y’all never totally miss the mark and show everything but the love, joy and peace of Jesus. :-). But when we screw up, we turn our faces back towards the One who knows us better than anyone. We say we are sorry. We lean in to His loving arms and we start the process again.
A soft heart that lives completely for Jesus and reflects His love and hope and peace to a hurting world does not happen in one day. Nor should we expect it to. Nor should we expect it of others. It’s a whole grace and mercy thing, y’all.
You don’t change into a perfect human the very moment after you enter into a relationship with Jesus and accept His free gift of salvation. That’s the day your passport is stamped “Heaven” not “earthly perfection”. But your journey on Earth until God calls you home is full of planting and learning and listening and planning and process and growth.
So you learn the basics. You consider what you want things to look like as you walk the path that God has just for you. Maybe you draw out a plan, write out some life goals, and you go to the Lord for some heart therapy and make heart choices out of godly wisdom and not excitement about how pretty you might appear to others. Then you allow those little darlins, those little fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control), to grow and then to come pouring out of you as you lovingly and wisely plant them in places that God directs you so they can reveal their God given beauty.
Just like a beautiful garden, a life lived with Jesus brings joy, hope, and peace.
Plant well.
A Beautiful Mess 