Gethsemane Prayer Garden at Faith Chapel

Today I was curious - how many types of plants are really in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden. The resultant list, which I've placed on the web, shows there are 60 varieties of flowering plants and another 20 varieties that do not flower. I thought others might be interested as well. http://www.prayergardeners.com/gethsemane/all_plants.html

This week we added an eleven-foot high cross to the Gethsemane Prayer Garden. Located at the south-west corner of the garden (near the stream and the garden shed), this location allows intimacy and fellowship with our Savior. It is our hope that people will receive a special touch of the Holy Spirit while there.

I learned today that deer can read. No kidding!! As you can see on the sign, the Gethsemane Prayer Garden has a second name: A Garden of Love. With that name and the beauty of the garden, many weddings have been held and we expect many more couples will joyously tie the knot there in the future. As developer and caretaker of this garden, I have gone to a great effort to select plants that are resistant to deer. They stay away from the gaura and the salvia, the coneflower and ...the blanket flower, the daisies and the iris, and so on. Of the sixty varieties of perennials and the many shrub and tree species, we only protect the phlox and the arborvitae from the deer. Most mornings, as I walk through the garden, I will see fresh deer prints in the walkways or on the soil. I know they have strolled through but thankfully they have not paused for a bite. And I realize that if the deer are hungry, there is no plant that the deer won't eat. Getting back to the literacy rate of the deer - these last few nights, the full moon has been out. I think it peaked on Halloween. During the full moon, the buck will follow the scent of the doe for miles, hoping to meet up with his new mate. This is commonly referred to as the "rut" season. Based on the footprints in the walkways, I think the new deer couple read the sign: A Garden of Love.

After a very hot and dry summer, the Gethsemane Prayer Garden has recovered beautifully. The Russian sage are still in blossom, the roses are abounding, there are patches of pink showy primrose which normally bloom in June, the white cone flowers and the even some of the daisies are peaking out their heads, there is a large patch of Japanese anenome in full bloom, and these are adjacent to abundant clusters of yellow coreopsis. There are brilliant red burning bushes next to t...he church and the ones in the garden have started to turn. And then there are the chrysanthemum, false ageratum and Autumn Joy sedum. But the most stunning are the gaura. Also known as 'Wand Flower', the gaura can be either white or various tones of pink. Close inspection of each gaura flower reveals four petals with a beard-like cluster of stamen and pistil. The flower heads sit on top of a long stalk that sways in the breeze. When one flower dies, the stalk produces another flower just above it in a seemingly endless pattern of beauty upon beauty. As you first go in the garden, you will see a large patch of the white gaura, and these are the tallest. Elsewhere in the garden there is a mix of the white ones with a soft pink that somehow reminds me of striped candy canes. At the entrance to the garden are two plants, each 30" tall and equally wide. These two gaura are a deeper tone of pink that makes them most appealing. If this autumn is like other fall seasons, the gaura should remain in blossom into November sometime. Please pay us a visit and bring your camera. Yes, it is a garden devoted to prayer, but sometimes we see things through the lens of a camera that encourages to dig deeper into that conversation with the Lord. Many blessings, Tom Clarke, Caretaker of the Gethsemane Prayer Garden

I love garden weddings. Yesterday (June 30th) a young couple shared their vows in the warmth of the day, the presence of one-hundred or so, and the presence of our Lord. The bride's dress was a flowing off-white with short veil and the groom matched colors in a trim suit and pink tie. The bride chose satan coral for the five female attendants and bright pink gerber daisies for the five guys. The wedding was fairly simple in form and lasted maybe thirty minutes. Everyone in a...ttendance faced the southern side of the garden where many showy primrose (soft pink) were in full blossom along with the many color variations of the shrubs and trees nearby. Beyond that, everyone passed by the two beds of roses, the salvia, spirea, daisies, and cranesbill. The light blue and dark purple lavendar added a good contrast as well. The Gethsemane Prayer Garden reaches its peak in color in June with the brusting of the roses. Each month brings changes in color and form so a different wedding experience can be obtained at different times of the year. This coming weekend, another garden wedding is to take place. In that case, the bride has chosen to exchange vows in the shade of the evening. On the western side of the garden, there are large trees that make area very comfortable after 3PM. The view is different, of course, including many purple coneflowers and white daisies as a backdrop. It is to be a black and white wedding so I expect that should be most lovely as well.

This has been a very busy spring for us that work in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden. Because our spring came very early, we were able to expand the garden along the stream. This area was densely populated with buckthorns, wild grape vines, large rocks from the farmer's fields and all sorts of plant debris. We carted off more the twenty loads of this junk plant material and then brought in forty yards of topsoil to cover the remaining rocks and left over debris. Nearly a pound ...of cosmos seed was been planted on that topsoil. The result is that the garden is now officially a two-acre garden rather than the one. Soon the area that was once a terrible eye-sore will be blossoming with pink, red, white, and crimson colors of beauty. We hope to plant some rhododenrons in the shade near the stream and then add a bench for another place of prayer. Please come for a visit.

SORRY! Facebook changed on March 31, 2012, and with it the ability to dialog with the various fictitious characters in the Gethsemane Prayer Garden. The Adventures of Twiggey will no longer continue on Facebook unless this is somehow resolved. Tom Clarke

He particularly loved the Psalms. During peacetime, he translated the first fifty Psalms because he thought it was an essential book that everyone should read. Check out what Ryan Van Neste says if you don’t believe me: http://rayvanneste.com/?p=640

The smashed trumpet may be seen on this photo, courtesy of the American Daffodil Society.

Hope heard something this:

Link courtesy of East Easington IM Church in United Kingdom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxfo-7mW74g