Fiona Veitch Smith

A Gardener’s Gospel – Week 19

Last weekend two of the neighbourhood kids – Jessica and Rosa – knocked on the door and asked if they could pick some of my flowers. They were making perfume. They didn’t care about the overgrown grass and the spreading weeds (I’ve been busy the last two weekends and haven’t had a chance to mow); all they saw and smelt from the road were roses and lavender.

Parfum de Fifi

I remember when I was eight-years-old and made my own blend of Parfum de Fifi, so I was delighted to let Rosa and Jessica use some of my flowers. When they’d finished in the front garden (I was glad to see they had plucked judiciously) I suggested they go into the back garden and pick some pansies too. After that they played with my three-year-old daughter on her slide, ran around with the Hound from Hell, and then went home.

I was reminded that gardens are to be used and enjoyed, not just displayed. Yes, I get frustrated when my lawn is perpetually rutted by the dog and sand poured over my seedlings by my daughter, but at least they are enjoying it. In my writing classes I’ve recently been using fairy tales as templates for modern stories (see Children’s Literature and the Quest for the Divine) and have re-read Beauty and the Beast and Rapunzel. In both of these stories, unsuspecting fathers are punished for wanting to enjoy someone’s garden.

Fairy tale gardens

In Beauty and the Beast (not the Disney version), Beauty’s father picks a rose for his daughter. The rose was on a bush hanging over a wall which belonged to the Beast. The Beast threatens to kill the man for stealing his rose unless he brings his daughter to him.
In Rapunzel, a pregnant woman has a craving for some lettuce in her neighbour’s garden. Her husband goes to get it and is caught by the witch who owns it. As punishment, the father is forced to give up the baby when it is born. I can’t help pointing out that if he’d just asked instead of taking, he might have got off more lightly – but that’s another story.

My point is that both of these gardens were for display only and their gardeners refused to share them. Thank God that He’s not like that. The Garden of Eden was planted for Adam and Eve’s enjoyment and they could use whatever was in it – apart from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If we’re looking for parallels with fairy tales, then both Rapunzel and Beauty’s fathers gave in to that temptation and suffered for it.

Gardens to be shared

But again, that’s not what I want to talk about. The rest of the garden, the 99.9% of it, was to be enjoyed. Gardens should be used. Some people treat God like He’s an ornamental garden, visiting Him now and then, appreciating his aesthetic beauty but never playing on the grass, picking the flowers or making perfume that can be shared with others. God wants us to enjoy Him and He wants us to share Him with other people too.

I was watching the Chelsea Flower Show the other week on TV. There was an insert presented by Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen on the British ‘front garden’. Lawrence bemoaned the fact that front gardens were being dug up to create room for parked cars. He looked back nostalgically to a time when front gardens were show pieces like British front rooms – always tidy, always ornamental and always un-used. Now while I agree with him that we shouldn’t dig up our gardens for parking space, I disagree that front gardens shouldn’t be used. In fact I’m thinking about extending my front garden fence so that it can be more part of the whole property. I want my family to enjoy it more freely, and the Jessicas and Rosas of the world to continue to feel welcome.

Balanced lives

This doesn’t mean that a desire for privacy is wrong – followers of the Gardener’s Gospel will know that I crave time alone – but we need to balance our lives between being open to others and taking time out; between sharing what God has given us and having that special time in solitude. Jesus modelled both. He had a band of followers with whom he shared his time, his gifts and his material goods; but there were times when he slipped away to be alone. His garden gave off a sweet perfume and people were drawn to him. He didn’t tell them to go away or pick someone else’s flowers. Jesus was not an ornamental garden.

My lover has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to browse in the gardens and to gather lilies. I am my lover’s and my lover is mine; he browses among the lilies.
Song of Songs 6:9

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