Gardening offers opportunity to grow in
        awareness of life, death and resurrection


by Irene Voth                         Saint Cloud Visitor Visitor
Staff Writer                          May 9, 2002

   "Your heart can't be thinking dark thoughts in a garden." -
Benedictine Sister Phyllis Plantenberg

   The true gardeners are out there already.  Despite the chill
wind and gray skies, they're hovering over tardy tulips, crouching
to caress the first red shoots of peonies, poking into the soil to
plant peas, potatoes and radishes, pruning the deadwood from the
budding lilac bushes.

   They have already eaten of the earliest vegetable - sweet and
pungent winter onions.  And, inside their houses, on window sills
and under fluorescent lights, their tomato seedlings are setting
on their second set of leaves, and their trays of tiny petunias
are looking more like plants and less like moss with each passing
day.

   Soon, you'll see more of them out there.  They'll be on their
knees weeding and watering and planting the seedlings they start6d
indoors back in March.  Gardening is all about growing, but for
many, prdening is first and foremost a spiritual exercise - a way
to grow in the awareness of God's goodness and wisdom, to grow
spiritually by experiencing some of the mysteries of Christ,
including his life, death, resurrection and continuing presence.

   "I know if I go out and get down on my knees to weed, I get
messages of goodness - it's comforting, soothing, you're not
alone," said Benedictine Sister Phyllis Plantenberg, retired
biology professor and founder of the Common Ground Garden at St.
Benedict's Monastery in St. Joseph - a subscription project that
provides fresh produce for its subscribers once a week for 16
weeks.

   "Lilacs beaten almost flat from the snow that was plowed onto
them all winter spring up and say 'I'm going to bloom' - that's
resurrection," Sister Phyllis said.

   One of her favorite flowers, the common field daisy, is a
wonderful example of resilience, she said.  "Once they get
started, you almost can't stop them from growing, and their sassy
blossoms invite you to smile."

   God's providence is probably most evident in the tomato, she
said. "There's almost nothing more fruitful and more giving than a
tomato vine - and there are so many varieties.

   "These are not my words, but someone - I can't remember who -
said, 'Gardens are the second book of Scripture,"' she said.  "How
can you be troubled when the answers are out there?"  


SCRIPTURE CONNECTIONS

  

   Steve Gessell, who has held a number of professional positions
as a gardener, including "head rose grower" at Clemens Gardens in
St. Cloud, agrees that gardening is a spiritual experience.

   "When I see seed sprouting - even after all these years - I'm
still awed. It's a miracle," he said, adding that his years at
Clemens Gardens have convinced him that flowers are the best
remedy when someone's spirits need a lift.  And, when the mood is
already joyous, as in a celebration, flowers add to that joy.
"Flowers are always appropriate," he said.

   The connection between gardening and Scripture is something
Gessell said he experiences whether he is planting, fertilizing,
pruning or harvesting. His appreciation of the lessons Jesus
taught through the parables, for example, is enhanced when these
actions bring certain verses to mind, such as these from the
fourth chapter of Mark: "A man scatters seed on the ground. He
goes to bed and gets up day after day.  Through it all, the seed
sprouts and grows without his knowing how it happens."


   "When Jesus talked, he was very down to earth," Gessell said,
explaining that Jesus was very observant of his culture - a
culture in which planting and harvest were very important, and he
used what he observed to help his disciples understand the Good
News.


   "When Jesus wanted his disciples to understand the reign of
God, he used the parable of the seed, Mark 4; the parable of the
mustard seed, Matthew 13; and the parable of the workers in the
vineyard, Matthew 20.  God's mercy and justice are the subject of
Jesus' parable about the barren fig tree in Luke 13; and Jesus
likens God to a vinegrower, himself to a vine and his disciples to
branches in John 15.

   This spring, for the first time, Gessell planted a patch of
wheat to use for fall decorations, and he said sowing the wheat
brought to mind a verse about life, death and resurrection from
John 12: "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it
remains just a grain of wheat.  But if it dies, it produces much
fruit."  The green blades of wheat are already nearly 5 inches
tall, he said.

   The cultivation of lilacs has become a major interest for
Gessell, whose yard now has 30 different varieties of hybrids that
all bloom tt the same time.  At the zenith of this annual spring
profasion of perfume and blossom, Gessell invites the members of
his pro-life group to a celebration of new life vhich includes
desserts and beverages.

STEWARDSHIP LESSONS

  

   Father Nicholas Landsberger, pastor of St. Mary Parish in
Little Falls, is another avid gardener.  Although he said he has
greatly scaled back his gardening from what it was in the early
1970s, when he seeded and sold bedding plants by the
tens-of-thousands, he still maintains a sizeable plot of flowers
in front of the rectory and grows an abundance of fruits,
vegetables and more flowers in a corner of the parish cemetery.
And, he still starts his own tomato plants from seed.

   "It's always good to get your hands into the soil.  It's
therapeutic," said Father Landsberger, adding that "it's an act of
faith to plant anything.

   "I do a lot of thinking when I'm gardening.  Things get
resolved," he said.

   Describing himself as "great believer in stewardship," Father
Landsberger said he sees everything as a gift from God and
believes gardening is about appreciating God's goodness and
beauty.

   Yet, gardening can be a challenge, he said, adding that he has
had to develop new strategies in order to get good results, such
as just "teasing" tomato plants with water while they are still
growing indoors in pots.  "I never soak them," he said, adding
that light watering encourages strong, bushy plants.  He also uses
human hair he collects from local barbers to discourage deer from
eating his newly sprouting corn.

   Like faith, garden ing can be mysterious.  For example, what
happens to the tulip bulbs after three or four years?  They must
just disintegrate," Father Landsberger said, adding he plants 100
new tulip bulbs each fall for his spring garden.  Amaryllis bulbs,
on the other hand, might live for 40 years.

   Father Landsberger said he currently has 400 amaryllis, bulbs
that he plants outdoors each spring to grow and blossom.  But even
the stored bulbs require stewardship, he said, and he checks them
several times during the winter months to see if any have sprouted
prematurely.  These he will place in a brown paper bag and put in
the utility refrigerator, which retards further sprouting until
planting time.

HOLINESS AND HEALING

          

   The Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls are ready and willing to
help local residents who would like to garden, but don't have the
space or the know-how.

   According to Franciscan Sister Ruth Lentner, for a small yearly
fee,, anyone can have a garden plot in their two-and-one-half acre
community gardens.  The sisters and their volunteers prepare the
soil each spring - not just by tilling, but by adjusting the soil
acidity levels as necessary, adding organic fertilizer as
necessary, and making available an abundance of water.  They also
supply advice, encouragement and a few gardening tools.

   "It is very Franciscan to work with the earth," she said,
adding that St. Francis knew himself as a creature of the earth
through observing all the small things on the land.

   "All things image God. she said. "The earth is holy.  There's
something about the energy of the earth that draws me to a
centeredness.  It's a healing energy."

   Anyone who gardens. she said, will begin "to see and understand
things that others don't see and understand."  The mystery of the
earth's holiness is what makes gardening mystical, she said,
adding that working in the soil. whether planting seeds or pulling
weeds is a "meditative" experience.

   "When you work with the earth, you learn patience," she said.
"The earth has its own time and its own season, and there's
nothing you can do to hurry it along.

   "The earth is not dead: it's very much alive," she said,
explaining that the land reacts to our presence on it and tries to
compensate for what changes that presence might bring about, such
as global warming.

   And those who cultivate the earth are also cultivated by it.

   Sister Ruth said she believes gardeners tend to be more
conscious of what they do to the earth, either directly - as in
what kind of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides they add to
it, or indirectly - as in whether they buy shadegrown coffee and
whether those who grow the coffee get a just wage for their hard
work.

   There is also the "deep sense of gratitude" the earth
cultivates within us, Sister Ruth said. "You're just in awe of
what the earth produces."


Article and photos reprinted courtesy of Saint Cloud Visitor.