Make_A-Mary

Make A Devotional Mary Garden
(It's like praying - with dirt!)

   Start a Mary Garden.... Or, add Flowers of Our Lady to your
present garden.... Have an outdoor shrine. Or be the giver of such
means to a person or family, society, school or religious institution.

   Your Mary Garden may be started with easy to grow annuals
Flowers of Our Lady purchased from garden stores, roadside stands or
nurseries as a:

   - Patio Container Mary Garden
   - Niche Mary Garden in a corner of an existing garden
   - Small Mary Garden

In following years biennial and perennial Flowers of Our Lady
may be added.

Inspiration

   The Mary Garden is an act of faith.

   It is first of all a picturing in your imagination of its
Flowers of Our Lady - named as symbols of the Blessed Virgin in
medieval times - with loving reflection on their meanings.

  That garden is an appeal to the heart. May it be that as you
envisage the Flowers of Our Lady they bloom spiritually within
your interior life.

  Then, with your garden stewardship, foliage, buds and blooms
will come of God's creatures the seeds, in due season and according
to his established order - in veneration of the Blessed Virgin, and
quickening recourse to her in meditation and prayer.

The Flowers of Our Lady

Suggested Annual Flowers of Our Lady for your beginning Mary Garden

Cornflower                   -           Mary's Crown
Forget-me-not*            -           Eyes of Mary
Impatiens*                    -           Mother Love
Larkspur                       -           Mary's Tears
Marigold*                      -           Mary's Gold
Morning Glory              -           Our Lady's Mantle
Petunia*                       -           Our Lady's Praises
Poppy                          -           Christ's Blood
Snapdragon                 -           Infant Jesus' Shoes
Sweet Alyssum*            -           Flower of the Cross
Sweet Scabious            -           Mary's Pincushion
Zinnia                           -           The Virgin

Choose a location for your garden that has at least 5 hours a
day of sun.

Prepare the garden soil with sand to make it porous for deep
penetration of water and air; humus to make it spongy to retain
water; and fertilizer to nourish plant growth.

  After planting, firm soil around plant roots; water; then shade
several days to prevent wilting.

Sprinkle garden with as much water as soil will absorb without
forming puddles. Allow some drying from the top down to induce deep
root growth and to draw in fresh air needed for soil processes and
root vigor. Then re-water thoroughly, etc.

  Remove any spent blooms and weeds, and loosen soil with a
cultivating fork if it becomes packed.

  For container Mary Gardens, trim the plants back to keep their
blooms low.

A Mary Garden Prayer

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

As our hearts are raised to you in love and thanksgiving through the
light, grace, fragrance and symbolism of these pure, blest,
transfigured flowers of Our Lady - your direct creations, showing
forth and sharing with us your divine goodness, beauty and truth -
we commune with you in awe and rapture and pray that we and all our
brothers and sisters may be opened to the fullness of the divine
love of God and Neighbor, through which we are to transform the
fallen world into the culminating earthly Peaceable Kingdom and
Paradise, that all may be lifted up resplendent in the eternal New
Heaven and New Earth of our Crucified and Risen Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.

Amen

Would you care to read more about how Mary Gardens began?