Gardens Already Planted

I’m not much of an outdoor gardener these days, but I have planted several perennials in the yard that bloom each year. Most are doing pretty well, but I haven’t had much luck with azaleas here in northeast Oklahoma. I’ve replanted new ones twice, but they died both times, and considering their short blooming season, I’ve just given up.

I’ve had good success with other perennials such as the hibiscus and the crape myrtle. The hibiscus I have was already here in my back yard when we bought this house. There were also beautiful shrubs in the front flower bed and Rose of Sharon shrubs, as well as forsythia, already here when we moved in. I planted the crape myrtle after I noticed them blooming all over Oklahoma in the hottest part of the summer.

We bought a house that was built back in the late 1970s and it is very comfortable. It has easier access to the back yard than our other house, so I find myself enjoying the yard more. At our other house, the back yard was mainly a large vegetable garden, but this yard isn’t very well suited for vegetable gardening, although I would like to try my hand at a raised garden bed this year.

“I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.” Joshua 24:13 NKJV

I had a friend years ago who was looking for a house. I prayed with her about it, and the Lord brought this verse to mind so I told her about it. Not long after they moved into their new house, I saw her and she told me the house they bought came with a big garden already planted with tomatoes on the plants.

That’s what God did for me too. He gave me hibiscus and Rose of Sharon shrubs already planted that bloom every year, and I didn’t have to lift a finger to plant them.

Lavon Hightower Lewis