Wednesday, September 28, 2011

In Review: 2011 in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden

While it may seem early to be writing a "How Did We Do For The Year?" review in the September / October time frame, to the caretaker of a public garden, it makes perfect sense to write this now. By December, flowers have long faded and the interest is more tuned to the next day's snowfall.
The Gethsemane Prayer Garden at Faith Chapel in Syracuse is a one-acre landscaped garden for people to enjoy the beauty of God our Creator and to rest in His presence. The garden is open to the public and there is no admission fee.

The hope at Faith Chapel is that people would visit this small but intimate garden, seeing it as an outdoor sanctuary and a place to experience God and His love. There are fifty perennial flower varieties and several hundred shrubs and trees, intended to usher in God’s peace. Benches are available for a quiet time with the Lord.
The Volunteer Force
The main purpose of this garden is plants for people, not plants in themselves. May was very wet and July was very hot. While the stress of extreme weather affects the plants, it also affects the garden workers. Some days in the garden were very challenging this year, but each year has some difficult days – this year it seemed that there were more.

We had forty-one volunteers this year which is down from fifty-two in 2010. The volunteer hours spent in the garden dropped 40 percent. Our typical church attendance is around 300 people on any given Sunday, of which nearly half are in their twenties or thirties – as caretaker, I personally am satisfied with the support shown by the older ones of our congregation. By the end of 2011, my own hours will have dropped 20 percent for the year, averaging just seven hours per week.

Garden Quality
Despite the reduced hours, the garden quality has not significantly suffered. Heavy mulching in late May was a significant factor in helping to control the weeds. The volunteers have developed good sensitivity for keeping the quality at a high level and they seem very interested in learning how to maintain a garden environment.

Much attention has been given to the wooden benches last year and again this year. A much-appreciated volunteer has spent an inordinate amount of time improving the quality of our benches and it shows. In a certain way, the quality of the garden is reflected in the quality of the benches, just as the polish on a man's shoe is a reflection of his opinion of himself.

The roses require the greatest amount of time in this garden, but these lusciously sweet flowers are well worth the effort. With the heat of July, we essentially had no blossoms for nearly one month. We lost them again in early September because we did not prune them often enough in August. (Remember the lesson on pruning from John 15). Yet while they were in blossom, the roses looked great as they have matured.

Garden Visitors
While the Gethsemane Prayer Garden is oftentimes without any visitors, we have seen more visitors this year than any previous year. On Monday and Tuesday evenings, my joy has been to see a small group of African refugees spend an hour or so in the garden. Each one takes his or her own bench and has a quite time with the Lord, some singing, some praying, some reading Scriptures, and one watching the two small children. At the end, they gather around the stone altar for a time of corporate prayer and singing. It is so sweet to see – whereas our suburban church folk may not know how to use this garden, the Lord has brought a group from a another continent to teach us by example!

We have also witnessed an increased number of visitors on Sunday mornings and at various times during the week. Articles in Syracuse's Good News paper and in the internet's Ruby for Women have helped this. We had two Garden Tours but they were not well promoted and therefore not well attended – hopefully we can do a better job with promotion next year.

Garden Expansion
This fall we have begun and should finish developing two areas:
  • A large rock was "planted" near the northern entrance to the garden, and landscaping will be added around it. We will plant flowers around this rock which will hopefully be more inviting to those that see this area for the first time.
  • The garden area in the south-west corner is being cleared. Plant debris near the stream is being removed and truckloads of soil have been brought in. Ground cover is being added around some of the evergreens in this area. The effect should be better integration of this area into the garden and will permit another location where people can seek the Lord.

Thoughts for Next Year
One of the struggles we had in April was overcoming the heavy deer damage from the previous winter. One ornamental pine tree had to be removed and several arborvitae were severely chewed. Later this fall, we should protect more of the evergreens and do this effort in mid-November before the snow starts flying. The fencing around a large cluster of evergreens looks ugly, but without it the deer would devastate them.

The lawn surrounding the garden will hopefully be mowed more often next year. The weather has been a major factor in this because too much rain and too much heat are significant inhibitors to regular lawn maintenance.

April and May are by far the most labor intensive periods in this garden. Hopefully in 2012 we will have much more volunteer participation during this time. As more people start discovering this garden, it will be important to get the garden in shape much earlier in the season.

We have had to put off the construction of the gazebo for another year. Hopefully the funds for this wedding location and center for small gatherings will be come to fruition in 2012.

Submitted in faith,
Tom Clarke

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End Note: The overall theme for this series of articles is flowers and plants, showing how they point to love. Sometimes I write 'how to' do something, other times the emphasis is a status update, or the article will be about how a plant or flower touched my heart. All of these writings are based on plants from the Gethsemane Prayer Garden in Syracuse, NY. Please consider some of the other blog articles: Index of Articles About the Gethsemane Prayer Garden.
Caretaker of the Gethsemane Prayer Garden

Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Gethsemane Prayer Garden from Google Earth

I was so surprised this week to discover that Google Earth has updated its images for Syracuse, NY and in particular the vicinity of the Gethsemane Prayer Garden. Have you tried Google Earth? In many ways it is similar to the image portion of Google Maps, but it allows you to re-position your view in a more powerful way.

Here is the view from Google Maps:
Gethsemane Prayer Garden from Google Maps

In this view, you can see the general shape of the garden, although the shaded area near the stream is covered by the canopy of willows, ash and black walnut trees. At the very center of the garden is a bed of roses with a second bed that is less visible to the left. Between the garden and the driveway are three berms – raised beds where trees and shrubs have been planted to separate the garden from the church area.

By using Google Earth, still another view is possible:
Gethsemane Prayer Garden from Google Earth

Google Earth identifies the date of this satellite image as June 3, 2011. With this software, it is possible to gain a much better perspective of the garden as well as see some vertical dimensions. Google Earth allows you to zoom left or right, up or down, in or out, or rotate around a 360 degree perspective. Pretty nifty!

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End Note: The overall theme for this series of articles is flowers and plants, showing how they point to love. Sometimes I write 'how to' do something, other times the emphasis is a status update, or the article will be about how a plant or flower touched my heart. All of these writings are based on plants from the Gethsemane Prayer Garden in Syracuse, NY. Please consider some of the other blog articles: Index of Articles About the Gethsemane Prayer Garden.

Friday, September 2, 2011

The Blossoms of September in the Prayer Garden

I took the time last night to leisurely stroll through the Gethsemane Prayer Garden where I am the Caretaker. Normally I am busy working in the garden and much too oblivious to the nuances of God's creation around me – it was a refreshing time as well as a time for reflection. Possibly it is a little like the woman that prepares a meal for the company to enjoy but is never able to enjoy it herself.

I was struggling with the direction that I am pursuing regarding the development and maintenance of the garden, as well as my own writing career. Alone in this garden, I asked God some hard questions that all surrounded the thought, "Why?". His response came as an image, and the interpretation was clear and simple, "Allow me to lead in this dance." This was not the response that I expected, but I thank God that the Holy Spirit revealed this image to me.

Many people are not familiar with the gaura, but what a joy it is! Some are taller and white, such as those placed near the main entrance to the garden. Other varieties are deep pink; my favorites are those with a delicate mix of white and pink blossoms. All varieties start to flower in mid-June and will continue in profusion through the first heavy frost. Gaura

The gaura has been aptly given the English name "wand flower" because each flower cluster sits on top of a long wand-like stem. The stems are so long and so thin that God seems to have created these flowers so we can enjoy how they dance in the breeze. Even on windless days, days where the air is so incredibly still, the flower heads gently move in response to the heat rising from the ground – dancing in the breeze.

In the Bible, the Hebrew word ruwach can be translated as both Holy Spirit and wind. As this flower dances, the gaura reminds us of the wind, the ruwach, the presence of the Holy Spirit. We may feel spiritually parched as we enter the garden – the gaura is there as a reminder of the refreshing and renewing that God wants to give us.

By September, the precious roses which sometimes go through a dry spell in mid-summer have now come back as the soil gathers more moisture and the evenings get cooler. We have a number of lusciously attractive pink 'Bonica' roses which are complemented by two varieties of 'Knock Out' roses. The roses will continue to bloom through November.

Another of my fall favorites is the false ageratum which blossoms until the first frost. These short bright-blue flowers, with a hint of fuchsia coloring, add an interesting contrast to the red, orange and rust tones that are typically seen in the autumn.

The Russian sage continues blossoming in September although their color can fade to more of a soft blue-gray tone. The broccoli-shaped autumn joy sedum comes alive with fresh, pinkish flowers that eventually change tones many times to eventually become an autumn rust color. Chrysanthemum, blanket flower (also known as Gaillardia), Japanese anemone all blossom in September, as well as some flowers that typically are found in the early summer but God decides to show their beauty one more time before the colder weather sets in.

I hope you take time to visit and use this prayer garden. As a recent visitor wrote to Faith Chapel, "What a sweet place the gardens were. So peaceful, so beautiful, and I can walk the paths easily. Yes, I was thoroughly blessed and hope to make many more visits. It’s a wonderful place to come and be quiet with the Lord."

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End Note: The overall theme for this series of articles is flowers and plants, showing how they point to love. Sometimes I write 'how to' do something, other times the emphasis is a status update, or the article will be about how a plant or flower touched my heart. All of these writings are based on plants from the Gethsemane Prayer Garden in Syracuse, NY. Please consider some of the other blog articles: Index of Articles About the Gethsemane Prayer Garden.