I hope you all had a really nice day. The weather was so beautiful. I finished watering the English garden today. I rigged up a watering device that enabled me to cover a greater area before moving the sprinkler. An old wire stand that I had out there was the perfect fit for the sprinkler. I stood the sprinkler atop it and that projected the water several more feet in each direction. It will be possible to strap the sprinkler to the wire stand and then just move the stand to different parts of the garden. It looks like we will get rain tomorrow and that will eliminate the need for me to start dragging hoses to the vegetable garden and the "herbaceous border" along the driveway.
I ought to explain the "herbaceous border" to you. Getting a little carried away with all the pictures in my English garden books, a couple of years ago I decided to create a beautiful garden along the driveway. Our drive is long and only obnoxious stuff grew along the fencerow between us and our neighbors after the first few pine trees near the road. I took the opportunity to reclaim some gardening area after the power company came in and "cleaned up" the neighbor's elms along the fencerow to protect the power line that runs through there. This action really opened up the area for sunlight and some little bits of debris needed to be raked away anyway. I tilled up a long strip and started begging plants off friends. What a pitiful excuse for an "herbaceous border" it turned out to be. However, every year it gets nicer. If I'd give it as much attention as the English garden gets, it probably would really be impressive. Today I noticed that standing down by the mailbox, it actually is beginning to take on a thicker, more maintained "herbaceous border" look. Still we have a long way to go. Rhiannon has dubbed it the "wanna be herbaceous border." Actually that name is sort of a joke around here since we knew we could never recreate what we were seeing in books without a full time gardener!
I planted a "Jacob's Ladder" plant in the closest thing to a shade area that the English garden has. Over in the new rose bed area, that I think will cease to be a rose bed, there is dappled shade in the morning. I am trying to create cover in the form of an old set of clothesline posts and a ladder from a tree stand stretched across two more wooden poles. I have planted all manner of climbing, creeping things to climb across those structures in order to create shade. The shade I am creating will cause the rose bed to cease to be a rose bed. I think alot of trading around will soon occur. Roses will go back in the middle of the beds in full sun and other flowers that needed a cooler life will go where the roses were.
Rhiannon took some pictures out there that we want to post sometime soon. Stay tuned on that. This afternoon I was able to pull weeds so easily because of the water that had soaked in earlier. Maybe that's a spiritual parallel right there. If you allow the Holy Spirit to soak into your life, the weeds that plague your soul are so much more easily removed!
This afternoon I took a little time to cut the rhubarb. I got about six quarts frozen. I suppose I could have cut more, but the ribs that were left seemed really small so I left them. It's kind of back breaking work as well.
I couldn't remember if I ever posted anything about these amazing verses in Ezekiel. They are some of my favorites and remind me of the water of life that Jesus gives. For several chapters of Ezekiel, the prophet speaks of his vision of the temple and God's Holy City. In the 47th chapter, talking about the river flowing out of the temple he says, "When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other." (Verse 7) Later in verse 9 we read, "And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live." This is definitely a picture of the Holy Spirit and His effect on the believer who yields to His wooing. Amazing growth occurs.
A warning in verse 11 causes me to ponder very deeply where I stand; "but its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt." This is speaking of the backwaters near this river--those places that don't allow for the flowing of the freshness of the water. I want to be a vessel that is constantly filled and re-filled with the life-giving power of God's Holy Spirit. I do not want to be a stagnant pool of salt where nothing can live.
Are all the gardens of my life well-watered? It is a question I must ask myself daily. Blessings, LORI
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