Ahhh… you might think. A gardening blog: a place to land and linger, inspired by hope-filled visions of luxurious abundance just outside your window. A place where you can almost smell the sweetness of the dirt under your finger nails, taste the bead of salty sweat on your lip, and anticipate contentedly surveying the finished carpet of blooms, or heavy vines of harvest. Well… maybe. Certainly like any new plot of land, this blog will transform over time from sparse to lush. There’ll be weeding, transplanting, fertilizing, composting, tending the soil, watering, and so on.

Friends, this blog is my first ever, and in its parcels and plots, I hope to share my love of the One who created the garden, and who invites me to partner in its tending, and especially that of my garden within.

You would think that having grown up surrounded by the natural and instinctive skill of my mother and grandmother, to their superior aplomb and finesse in the art of gardening, I would be genetically inclined to carry on the tradition. You would think. The only thing I do carry with me is a deep love for buds and blooms, and an unsurpassed eagerness to hustle and toil to enjoy the fruits of my labors. Even after all these years, I am still a novice. A keen novice with a khaki thumb, ready and willing.

More than anything, I most enjoyed capturing its beauty in the frozen-in-time images of photography. The first time I ever picked up a camera as a young child, my subjects were close-ups of flowers, capturing the tiniest patch of petals, the soft cushions of stamens, the glistening ladybug on a dewy variegated leaf. I marveled at the detail found in these tiniest corners, at how the color was painted, pulled and stretched over its minutely textured surface to produce the most glorious depth in each streak of its hue. For me, the garden has always been a place of peace over the years, an oasis where drinking in the wondrous beauty has encouraged reflection and inner growth in those hidden, deep places that only the seeds know of. Here has become a place where I often connect with the Master Gardener as He cares and tends me, and invites me to tend with Him His own glorious creation.

Friends, let’s take our time together. Let’s get eager. Let’s walk and linger. And let’s learn at the Master Gardener’s knee, and marvel at how our gardens grow.

Erin