Our Lady's Garden is Blooming

We spent the weekend at the ocean and came back to some beautiful flowers in Our Lady's Garden. As we drove up, we noticed St. Mark's Plants (our lupines) were in full bloom.

St. Mark's Plant (Lupines)
Walking to our front door, we noticed one of Our Lady's Roses had produced a double blossom.

Our Lady's Rose (Red Rose)
In the back yard, we found that our Impatiens were flourishing.

Impatiens: Double Victorian Rose
Finally, Theresa noticed that our lilac-colored St. John's May Flower had decked itself out in all it's splendor for our return.

St. John's May Flower (Rhododendron)

Lesson Learned

On Saturday, I decided to spend a little time weeding in Our Lady's Garden. Since then, I have learned a valuable lesson. With Patrick standing near me, I pulled some Blackberry bushes, some Dandelions, some unnamed weeds and Herb Robert. The latter was spreading everywhere and had a noticeably unpleasant odor. I was happy to be able to accomplish this small amount of weeding.

Yesterday, Patrick decided to help me with my job of weeding. He had observed me so carefully and in doing so, he had learned that flower picking was for the novice. He pulled up most of our forget-me-nots. Next time, I decide to do some weeding, I will make sure it is during my little one's nap time.

Rhododendrons

Two of our seven rhododendrons (also known as St. John's Mayflower) are starting to bloom. My son was excited about their blooming because, as he observed, "Bees love these flowers and they make honey from them." He then went on to say, "The bees make honey in a little house. The people take the honey from the bees' little house and keep filling their jars with it. When their jars are full, they put it for sale."

Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis)

This beautiful plant (whose religious name is Mary's heart) was flowering when we first looked at our house. A year later, I read about the bleeding heart in Karen Andreola's A Charlotte Mason Companion.

My children delight in the little heart-shaped flowers. In the spring and early summer, Brendan plucks a little heart everytime he goes out the front door. He has been doing this for the past four years and I wonder whether he will ever tire of picking these flowers.

The bleeding heart requires virtually no care. I simply remove the dead leaves and branches in the fall or winter and the plant grows back beautifully the following spring.

The Garden of Our Lady's Immaculate Heart

Yesterday, after Mass, one of my friend's shared an idea with me. Marlene told me that when someone asks us to pray for them or when we say we will pray for someone, we should go right away and place the prayer request in the garden of Our Lady's Immaculate Heart. Then whenever you think of it, you can request that the prayers you have placed in the garden of Mary's Immaculate Heart be answered.

Dear God, please answer all the prayers that I have placed in the garden of Mary's Immaculate Heart.

Our Weekend

Saturday, it rained all day. Sunday was beautiful! Did we garden? Oh no...WE PLAYED!