My little garden on the East End.

Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don’t dwindle away.  Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because your future depends on its welfare...

The Lord proclaims: When Babylon’s seventy years are up, I will come and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.  I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the Lord; they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope.  

When you call me and come and pray to me, I will listen to you.  When you search for me, yes, search for me with all your heart, you will find me.  I will be present for you, declares the Lord, and I will end your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have scattered you, and I will bring you home after your long exile, declares the Lord.  (Jeremiah 29:5-7, 10-14)

One of the delights this spring has been the transformation of my little 5' x 10' back deck.  Each week I've enjoyed adding new vegetables and flowers. I find myself lingering in the morning over a mega-mug of tea as I await the sun rise over the building to the east.  In the afternoon the sun is on the west side, and the shade welcomes me as I return home from work.  As I linger I listen to the noises of the city.  I notice neighbors moving about, a woman who walks her dog in the grass on the edge of our parking lot, the birds chatting to each other, the occasional stray cat...this is a city that is new to me, and yet I pray as I linger out in my little garden for it's welfare.  This is what the Lord requires of me in this season.

I hope you enjoy a few pictures of my plants, in the meanwhile I will delight in the promises of the Lord.  

My first strawberry...ever!

It tasted delicious, like a little bit of sunshine!

Three broccoli plants are growing in a 2' x 2' container garden along with a tomato plant that is just starting to bloom.  After a couple of years of growing broccoli in Iowa, I thought I'd give it a try in West Virginia.  So far, so good!

Lettuce is growing in two horizontal containers - lots of yummy varieties are thriving thanks to the morning sun!

My herb garden includes three pots of basil,
two kinds of sage and some lavender
for good measure.


One of the benefits of this garden spot is that I get to enjoy breakfast out on the back porch each morning - gardening slows me down and makes me literally and figuratively 'stop and smell the roses'...or rather petunias and geraniums!