Rethinking Your Landscaping: Developing a New Design

This week I completed the landscaping redesign for the front of our house. Sometimes the changes we make in a garden is a response to our impulsive nature: purchase some little gem because it looks so adorable. And sometimes our changes involve the transplanting flowers or shrubs because they have outgrown their space or would simply look better somewhere else. And sometimes it is time for an overhaul.

Since retiring from the Gethsemane Prayer Garden, I still have a yearning to get my fingernails dirty. Now they are.

Whether you are designing a new prayer garden or tackling a redesign of your landscape, the principles should be the same: develop a vision of the big things based on your overall objectives. Initially, do not be very concerned with the little plants, "Where will I plant my special peonies?" for the time will come where that will become more obvious. Instead, focus on what must go and what cannot change. And look for those features that will make the big impact on the new plot that complement your objectives.

Here is how our house looked in August of 2013.

Click photo to enlarge

What Must Go
I had been so consumed with my full time secular work, the responsibilities of the Gethsemane Prayer Garden and my writing/publishing assignments that I had largely neglected the look of our house. Kind of like the gobbler's shoes.

Our biggest problem was the seven steps that led to the front door: they were deteriorating and someone could get hurt. My wife could no longer negotiate these concrete stairs. I feared someone stumbling at night.

The house is over forty years old and the concrete walkway from the driveway to those steps had started to heave from the severe winters and was too narrow because of overgrown yews.

The third problem was the overgrown burning bushes that covered the front door and bay window. There were three beauties that turned luscious red in the fall but their size made the house seem uninviting. The visitor had difficulty feeling comfortable with what may be behind those shrubs.

What Cannot Change
There are four trees that had to remain – everything else was negotiable. The two birch trees were planted there to provide nighttime protection from our neighbor's spotlights. I was hoping for more visual protection from those birches when I planted them twelve years ago, but they certainly were not going away now. And my wife has made it very clear that the two maples, seen on the far left and far right of the photo, were to remain. End of discussion.

The Big Impact
I pondered how to treat the sidewalk and stairs for several weeks. I used rope to lay out the two sides of the walkway but each time I tried, the vision of the existing plants got in the way.

Click photo to enlarge

Finally I called a contractor. He removed the steps and stairs, and he transplanted the yews and burning bushes with his excavator. If the shrubs lived, great; if not, oh well.

Landscaping is not like carpentry. With landscaping, you can design part without having a complete vision of the final product. With carpentry, you don't want to relocate a downstairs wall because your plumbing just does not otherwise work – you must thoroughly plan ahead. I consider it an honor and privilege to own a shovel.

At that point, I received the vision of a raised walkway that is embedded in the ground. When given a choice between an obtuse wooden walkway that can rot away and one that is placed in the ground, I will always choose the later. Now my wife, who walks with short steps because of her limitations, can get to the front door without climbing any steps.

Next
In the next article, I will discuss design objectives when rethinking your landscaping.

Prayer Rooms in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden

There are eight outdoor prayer rooms in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden. The prayer rooms use shrubs and trees rather than wood or concrete to separate each area. A bench has been placed in each prayer room for personal intercession with God and private viewing of the beautiful flowers and plantings.

As I stated in my article Design Garden Prayer Rooms With Inviting Paths, I believe that pathways can create a sense of curiosity and intrigue. By positioning the shrubs and trees closely together, each room is secluded from the next – the larger plants also form garden hallways connecting one prayer room to another.

The article below is not new. At the end of 2014, I stepped down from my position as Caretaker of that two-acre garden. Subsequently I removed all webpages from the Gethsemane Prayer Garden website and moved that information to this blog thinking it might be helpful for some people.

Grace Prayer Room

The wooden cross stands eleven feet tall and majestically hovers over this prayer room. Naturally this is the most popular of the rooms. The infectiously abundant love and grace of Jesus Christ is readily apparent here.

Along one side of this prayer room, a series of shrubs, trees, and rocks retell the story of Exodus 33 and 34. The pillars of fire and cloud, Moses, the Israelites, and the two stone tablets are all seen in this reenactment. As the plants mature over the years, this depiction will be more easily seen.

Abiding Love Prayer Room

There are four large prayer rooms in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden; the Abiding Love Prayer Room is the oldest and some suggest it is perhaps the loveliest. At the center of the room are two beds of soft pink and brilliant red roses; these roses blossom from June to November. A plethora of other pink, blue, red, purple, and white flowers help make this room a favorite.

Roses are often used to symbolize love and these roses certainly do; to sit here is often an encounter with Christ's agape love.

Intimate Prayer Room

Prayer gardens should, when possible, have both large rooms for the eye to roam and smaller rooms with fewer distractions. The Intimate Prayer Room is a closely defined space that is particularly good for focusing on the Lord.

For two weeks in the spring, a redbud tree blooms above the bench with showy magenta flowers without the competition of its own green leaves. When the heart-shaped leaves emerge, they provide excellent shade for the bench that sits below it. The summertime shade of the redbud is often a welcome respite on a hot day.

Reflection Prayer Room

Located under the shade of some tall willows and nut trees, the Reflection Prayer Room overlooks a 20'x25' pond that we call the 'Pool of Siloam.' Directly above the pool is a bed of local and commercially-available shade loving flowers, a soft blend of light and dark green foliage with colorful suggestions of pink, white, and blue.

The quiet ambiance of this area is captured by the pond's reflective character, a small dam with the sound of falling water, and refreshingly cool air as it passes over the water. It is a place to reflect on what God has done, is doing, and is going to do.

Joyous Celebration Prayer Room

The Joyous Celebration Prayer Room, unlike the other prayer rooms, is filled with flowers that are yellow and white. There are some blues, pinks, and purples, but predominantly it has a cheerful yellow theme.

The emphasis on joy is based on the remembrance of several loved ones – while it can be very difficult to loose a parent, spouse, or child, there is comfort in knowing we can celebrate their permanent home with Christ. This prayer room can accommodate a larger number of people that can joyously sit or stand in agreement and support.

Worship Prayer Room

When people visit the Worship Prayer Room they often ask, "Why are those rocks there?" The story goes back to 1999 when the first phase of the Faith Chapel building was completed. This 530-seat facility was constructed by volunteer labor in 22 months, never borrowing any money from anyone. That debt free status allowed the church to support missionaries and develop facilities such as this prayer garden.

Joshua created an altar of remembrance after the Israelites miraculously crossed the Jordan River on dry land (Joshua 3 and 4). Similarly we created this stone altar in remembrance of how God helped us complete this facility.

Wind and Spirit Prayer Room

Many people are not familiar with the flower gaura, but what a joy it is! The singular purpose of the Wind and Spirit Prayer Room is to observe the uniqueness of the gaura as it sways back and forth.

Also called the "wand flower", each cluster of blossoms sits on top of a long wand-like stem. The top-heavy gaura seems to dance in the breeze, even when there is seemingly no detectable wind. 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.

Peaceful Waters Prayer Room

Water is somehow soothing to the soul, especially when under the shade of a tree. Minimal landscaping has been done to this area yet it offers its own sense of serenity. The simplicity of this location is a draw to many prayer garden visitors.

The only flowers in this area are the bright yellow marsh marigold in early May and the tall mauve-colored Joe Pye weed in August; both of these flowers are natural to this area and were placed along this streambed by God many years ago. Frogs, wild ducks, chipmunks, and many birds also draw young children to this peaceful spot.

Conclusion

The result of these eight prayer rooms is an integrated garden with flowered areas that seemingly flow from one area into another. When one sits on any bench in the garden, there is privacy in that prayer room – that is, the other seven benches cannot be seen and it belongs to them unless someone passes by.

Purple Smokebush: Cloud-like, great for prayer gardens

I see the purple smokebush as a stunning shrub with a kingly sense of royalty, a great plant for a prayer garden. We planted four purple smokebushes 'Cotinus Coggygria Attropurpurea' in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden in May, 2013. Also known as smoketrees, those familiar with them know that their small size (currently four-feet tall) will someday be far larger and will sprawl over a wide area. I have seen some as large as twenty feet tall and wide; ours will be pruned to ten or twelve feet to maintain a full effect.

Purple smokebush planted this year


Mature 15' tall purple smokebush in a neighbor's yard

The four purple smokebushes are part of a larger planting based on Exodus 33:7-34:35. Located near the cross in the Grace Prayer Room, these royal purple smokebushes are complimented by seven flame-shaped upright junipers, five stiff upright junipers, two pieces of stone, a round boulder, a prostrate blue spruce, and a brilliant red-flowering weigela. Together these objects portray a pictorial representation of the encounter that Moses had with the Lord while in the cleft of the rock.

The purpose of this blog entry is to explain how the smokebush fits the role of the cloud from the Bible. Future blog entries are intended to focus on other portions of this Exodus story. But for now, the question becomes, "What is the purpose of the cloud as seen in Exodus and other books of the Bible?"

Royalty
Whenever this cloud was mentioned in the Bible, God was present. For example:

• When the Israelites left Egypt, God's presence was there in the cloud by day
• When Moses went up the mountain, God was there in the cloud
• When the cloud shifted location in the wilderness, God was directing them to pick up camp and move to another place
• When Moses went in the tent of meeting to meet with God, the pillar of cloud stood outside the tent
• When the High Priest went into the Most Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, the cloud was there and God was in the midst
• When the temple was dedicated by Solomon, he recalled the Lord's proclamation that He would dwell in the cloud (1 Kings 8:12)
• When Jesus went up the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, John, and James to meet with Moses and Elijah, God spoke out of the cloud

"Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." Exodus 40:34-35 NKJV

The purple leaves of the Gethsemane Prayer Garden's smokebush indicate royalty – the presence of God.

Visibility
From outside the cloud, it is very difficult if not impossible to see through it; from within the cloud, objects may be seen. We have planted the smokebush as a visual screen between those praying within the garden and those "outside the camp."

Purple smokebush flower

The heavy amount of moisture in a cloud restricts the ability to see into it. To the Israelites at the base of the mountain in Exodus 19, they knew God was in the cloud but they could not see Him. They were looking towards God from a distance. Moses could not initially see the Lord in the cloud while on top of Mount Sinai, yet from within the cloud, he saw the Lord pass by (Exodus 34). In Revelation 14:14-16, John beheld One like the Son of Man from within the cloud. The cloud is formed by loosely coupled masses, much like the flowers of the smokebush. Within this eight-inch blossom, there are little dots which are the seeds for next year's plants. It is striking how much space remains between the tiny branches and seeds, yet the massive effect of the efflorescence prevents seeing through the plant.

Protection
As the Egyptian army pursued the Israelites, the pillar of cloud protected His people by providing darkness between the two groups. As the cloud later moved them from place to place, the Lord was both directing and protecting them in their journey across the wilderness. The purple smokebushes are planted as a reminder of the Lord's protection over us.

The Voice of the Lord
The Lord spoke to Moses out of the cloud as a man speaks to a friend. About Himself, the Lord stated He is,

"Merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation." Exodus 34:6-7 NKJV

The purple smokebush, planted near the cross in the Grace Prayer Room, is a reminder that we can hear His voice. We do not have to turn to the smokebush to hear it, but it is a reminder, a picture if you will, of how God speaks to us. He is speaking no matter where we are.

Therefore, the purple smokebush is placed in this quiet and restful place to help us know His royal presence, seek His face, understand His protection, and hear His voice.

Catmint Is Great for the Garden Border

We find that the catmint delivers a high impact color in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden for a low cost.

We purchased five of these lavender blue plants in 2004, placing them in a highly visible location near the center of the garden. These five developed four children over the next two years; the children were moved to fill in some holes between taller evergreens. In the spring of 2009, it was time to move them again.

The catmint is vibrant in color while blooming from late May through early July, but slowly the flowers fade away. Even when we cut them back in mid-summer to strive for a second bloom, the plants did not warrant their prominent center-of-the-garden location. So in 2009 we transplanted them to the border location where they now thrill our visitors – by dividing them with the sharp push of a shovel, our five initial plants had become twenty-two.

The purple tones of the common catmint are great for providing contrast to neighboring plants. Their colors can pop when combined with a bright pink such as found in petunias. We intersperse them between dark green Austrian pines which are planted near the driveway at the front of the garden. Eventually the Austrian pines will grow into a full screen protection so people cannot see into that portion of the garden. For now, the catmint provides the visual distraction so that people see the bright purples without focusing on the garden interior.

Our catmints are large, typically growing five to eight feet across; they appear to enjoy the heavily mulched hillside of the berm. The second blossoming in August through October is somewhat smaller, possibly four to six feet wide. Between the two flowering seasons, we aggressively cut them back to eighteen inches.

The result is nearly five months of prolific blossoms. I am sure that the bees, if they could talk, would be actively thanking us. Hopefully our church visitors feel invited as well – a fully flowered prayer garden is on the other side of that berm.

Design Garden Prayer Rooms With Inviting Paths

A prayer garden should create an atmosphere where peaceful serenity can be found while at the same time stimulating communication with our Heavenly Father. One way we attempt to accomplish that in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden is by creating prayer rooms with inviting garden paths.

Click on any photo to see them all in full-screen.


As with a room in a home, we place a curvaceous path in the middle of the prayer room that invites the eye and softens the heart. The benches, flowers, and shrubs become like the home's furniture and decoration. The end of the path should bend quickly, providing a sense of mystery and intrigue.



Each path's vista then defines a prayer room with a sense of privacy and seclusion from the next room. The design should include landscaped hallways that lead to the next room.



Tall shrubs can create boundaries between the rooms and act like doors that gently open into the next.



The prayer rooms may be large or small. Each room should have one or possibly several benches for lingering, and all benches should be positioned for privacy.



Large rocks can serve as impromptu sitting locations.



A shrub placed adjacent to the path can add curiosity by breaking up the larger prayer rooms.



The Joyous Celebration Prayer Room has a stone pad for a table and chairs. Smaller groups can use these larger prayer rooms.

This bird bath is inscribed with a poem, yet man-made statuary is minimized in this garden.



Mixtures of colors and textures should encourage one to linger in a prayer room. The dark-blue columbine flowers add continuity between rooms.



Small hills (berms) with tight plantings may be necessary. We use shrubs and trees to prevent people in the parking lot from seeing into any room. This view into a room is available from the back side of the garden.



The plantings, whether in a prayer room or along a path hallway, can also take on symbolic meanings which also invite people to the garden. The Wooden Cross Prayer Room, for example, portrays the story from Exodus 33,34 where Moses watched the Lord pass by him. We encourage those that have a smart phone to go to agardenoflove.com to read or hopefully someday soon listen to these Scriptural interpretations.



There are eight prayer rooms in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden.

Proverbs 3:13-17 (NASB):
¹³ How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding.
¹⁴ For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold.
¹⁵ She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her.
¹⁶ Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.
¹⁷ Her ways are pleasant ways and all her paths are peace.

In Review: 2012 and What's Next in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden?

In 2012 we completed one of the largest expansions of the garden area. By clearing a large thicket of overgrown brush near the stream last spring, we are now officially calling this a two-acre garden. That area was planted with cosmos which unfortunately did not fair very well with the dry weather and lack of watering.

Then last fall, another 150 feet of walkway was added on the southern side of the garden along with a large wooden cross and two wooden grape trellis structures as an illustration of the pruning process in John 15:2.

My regular prayer to God has been, "What's next?"

For some time, I have been seeing a vision of a large wooden gazebo. This began when I saw a 12'x20' gazebo at the Treadway Inn in Owego NY:

The cost of this gazebo is well beyond what Faith Chapel can afford, even if we use our own construction crews. But I know that if God wants it built, He will provide a way.

In my prayers I have also asked God about the lack of water and electricity in the garden. So far there has not been an answer:

• WATER: There is water available at the church but the difficulty is in getting the hoses across the parking lot to the targeted areas. Lugging the hoses into the garden and then coiling them up at the end of the day is challenging – not a task to be left for the faint-hearted. As a result, dry areas are not adequately watered and the plants suffer each year.
• ELECTRICITY: We had four weddings in this garden in 2012 and I expect many more in future years. Weddings really could use electricity to amplify their voices and sing whatever songs the new couple selects. Possibly we could have outdoor lighting or we could place spotlights on the wooden cross. And to build that gazebo, it would sure help if we had electricity.

I'm not exactly sure why God replied as He has, but He continues to remind me of a song by Hillsong with the title, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul".

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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.
Tom Clarke, Caretaker of the Gethsemane Prayer Garden

Why the Redbud is My Favorite Tree

The outstanding redbuds have opened! Like everything else in Central New York, these trees are three or possibly four weeks ahead of schedule! The deliciously aromatic lilacs are already starting to open and the fullness of the crab trees are just beginning their vibrant display of multi-colored pinks. The delightful dogwoods are just emerging, some deep purple magnolias are in full blossom, and the soft fragrance of the apple blossoms is in the air. This spring is early and this spring is suddenly gorgeous! Love is in the air.

Give me but one tree, shrub or flower that I would especially want in a newly planted garden, it would be a redbud. I don't know why it is called "red" bud for the blossoms are hardly red at all. But then again, would you call it "purplebud" or "pinkbud"? What is that color anyhow?

The crab trees can be stunning, but all of them have leaves that compete with their flowers. Cherries, pears, hawthorn, and linden trees can arrest us with their beauty, but all have that same competing leaf problem. Forsythia open with very little leaf showing, but please pardon my bias, they're yellow. Only the dogwood and the redbud in this portion of the world are created by God's design to be lovely and leafless for the first week or two. And of the few dogwoods that we have because of our winter extremes, most are white and not pink.

While the redbud is by far my favorite tree, transplanting them is not high on my list. I learned my lesson many years ago when a nurseryman offered me two free redbuds if I wanted to dig them. I cut my landscaping teeth on them! Back in the years when I thought I knew how to play tennis, I talked my regular tennis opponent into tackling them: one for his house and one for mine. It took us five hours to dig those tangled roots out of the rich nursery loam! About four hours into the effort, the nurseryman wandered over, "How you boys doing?" I don't know how he asked that with a straight face.

My advice on planting redbuds? Buy potted plants from a reputable nursery and then select a location with plenty of space so that you will never be tempted to move them again.

In the photo above from the Gethsemane Prayer Garden, you can possibly detect a small shrub with white flowers to the right of the redbud. These are fragrant viburnums and we have three planted three. On a day with a gentle westerly breeze, the most sweet-smelling aroma fills the parking lot of our church, beckoning everyone to come visit. If you are tempted to plant a redbud, I highly recommend this combination.

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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.

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:


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:


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.

A Daisy-Like Flower Bed in Memory of Gino

I must admit that I am not much of a fan of the color yellow in a meditative garden. Long and hard I have put off the urging of others to add yellow to our otherwise softer colors of pink, purple, white, blue, red, etc. To me, if we are to be listening for the voice of God, we should be still, or as least not excited – and that is what yellow can do, excite us, or at least it excites my thoughts.

I have a number of yellow flowers around my house, and we have yellow potentilla and yellow lilies around the church building, but not so much in the Prayer Garden. Even when I selected daisies for the garden two years ago, I purchased the shaggy ones that don't have a yellow center. I'm not against yellow per se, I just want us to have that experience with the Lord.

But this year it has changed. Thanks to a $125 donation to the garden in memory of a man named Gino, his mother and I both felt that it would be best to remember him with daisies. Actually we planted a daisy-like bed that includes various types of daisies as well as other flowers such as white coneflowers, light yellow coreopsis, spurge, and a dash of Gaillardia (blanket flower).

Then a $50 donation came in for some yellow roses, and these were planted adjacent to the daisy-like bed. I selected the light colored yellow 'Knock Out' rose that is very disease resistant. Due to the summer heat, all of the flowers had died off at the nursery where I purchased them. Yesterday I noticed that one new bud has just opened and the colors go very well with the various white and yellow flowers in the adjacent bed.

I can't explain why I have now allowed yellow when I was so fanatical in other years. This newest bed is in an area that is somewhat isolated from the rest of the garden, and is visible from only one of the benches. Yet there is enough white in this flower bed along with softer yellow tones that the combined daisies and roses look very good. Will it disrupt hearing God's voice or sensing His peace and love? I don't know, but time will tell.

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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.

The Start of the Gethsemane Prayer Garden

The Gethsemane Prayer Garden was first envisioned independently in 1999 by two people: Pastor Lee Simmons, founding pastor of Faith Chapel, and Alice Soule, a member of the church body. The garden was seen to be a quiet place of refuge and peace; a place similar to the garden in Jerusalem where Jesus offered his cup before the Lord in prayer; a place to have an encounter with the Lord.

Four years later, under the direction of Pastor Lee Simmons, the garden began development as a result of an initial bereavement gift. First, the gentle 'Bonica' roses were added, followed in subsequent years with a stone altar, then several privacy berms, the addition of a trellis, and finally the relocation of a large number of shrubs and trees. As each area was developed and as finance permitted, perennials were brought in and walkways were added to create a cohesive and flowing effect.

Today, this two-acre site has expanded to include twelve beds (12,000 sq. ft.), sixty perennial flower varieties, and several hundred shrubs and trees from forty species and subspecies. This prayer garden is open to the public and has no admission fee. While this garden presents the beauty of the landscape, many have commented on the serene peace that this garden offers.

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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.

The Layout of the Gethsemane Prayer Garden

Some gardens start with a grand scheme, a vision, a great idea, a landscaped scheme that appears beautiful on paper. Some have no apparent purpose or plan as they seemingly place plants arbitrarily here and there, like a five-year-old artist that throws paint onto the easel. The Gethsemane Prayer Garden in Syracuse is neither of these, yet there are aspects of each.

Pastor Lee Simmons, a visionary pastor with grand ideas, approached me with a fresh opportunity in 2003. Someone had donated a large sum of money to the church in memory of his wife that had just gone home with the Lord. The two men agreed that the money would be used to start a landscaped garden for the purpose of meditating with God – it was to be a prayer garden.

With the help of many from our church, I had coordinated the landscaping around the church building in the spring and summer of 2000. It was a new building, and we planted two hundred shrubs and trees around the property. The foundation plantings were simply placed with a mix of varieties based on a the limited budget, and most were commonly available shrubs.

This garden was to be much different. We had planted a pin oak and a cutleaf purple beech in the lawn with no particular plan in mind, and it was decided to turn these into the corners of the first section of the garden. A professional landscaper was selected; soon we had two beds of lucious pink 'Bonica' shrub roses along with many other July and August flowering plants: stately purple coneflowers, flowing Russian sage, and pinkish autumn joy sedums.

The next year, I was asked to be the Caretaker – so it has been for the last seven years. The garden has grown in size each year having expanded from 800 to 8,000 square feet. There are nine flowering beds that are intermixed with shrubs and trees.

Each time we expanded, the Lord gave me a planting scheme for each bed with the interweaving of fine sand gravel walkways that curve between adjacent plantings. First would come the center plant or plants as the extremities of the bed were developed in my mind. If a sketch was made, it was never exactly followed.

I am well convinced that plants, both large and small, are best placed by careful examination by eye. The sketch may be helpful and can sometimes avoid problems down the line, but we don't really know until that plant is stood up in its proposed location. By considering the ultimate height of all the plants, sometimes significant adjustments become obvious. Looking from many angles, pacing off the size with our feet, soon we begin to see it come together. We plant it, and then move on to the next largest or next most showy.

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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.