Welcome!
Once upon a time, there was a farmer who saw a woman (me) wandering around in the garden: He told her, “Take the whole plot! You’ll enjoy it!”
I said “Good!” (You may know that I like big challenges.) But it’s a lot – 120 square meters! I was a bit anxious; that happens when you step into unknown adventures, but after a year I can say it turned out beautifully.
Here we are: There and back again. A year ago I covered the garden and a few weeks ago I did it again. To rest in wintersarms.
There and back again
Bilbo Baggins/
J.R.R. Tolkien
Journey along with me through the past year; there and back again.
This is what it looked like when the farmer offered me the plot – a black depressing piece of soil.
The metamorphosis came quickly:
The Garden of Abundance
And then we got down to business. I was still daydreaming in my dream house. We have everything our hearts desire and more. We are among the richest 2% of humanity. We live in peace and abundance. Our family of six has never been in debt, and we have never had to use the food bank.
Okay. We have had it really tight sometimes, admittedly.
Rain, storm, wind
From my journal
and sunshine
are part of life
Jelle would say: “Oh, that’s a cash flow thing.“ Not that he downplayed it at all. But Jelle has a deep trust and the conviction that we are taken care of and that we will never be short.
Once we got a bill for 10,000 euros that we could not pay. Education costs are high when you live abroad. But suddenly, there was an email in my email box with someone who wrote: “We want to transfer 8,000 euros to you for your living and school costs!”
I can tell you that these are the kind of things that you don’t forget quickly.
Our life has been a dance of trusting the Lord in good and difficult times.
One jolly sunday afternoon.
Now, back to the garden! Stop daydreaming and get to work!
The barren earth changes in the spring into a glow of green and later yields more and more fruit until there is abundance. That is the garden. It is the gift that we receive, and it is my Holy Ground and offering to the Creator.
Not that He is waiting for offerings. Everything that is needed has already been provided. But still. I want to work this earth out of gratitude. Because working together with the elements and the people around me – there are few things that make me so happy!
O joy!
In the meantime, more and more people are joining us: My sister Marleen did the design of the garden. My friend Jacob, who lives in an eco village at the edge of Wageningen, did the landscaping. Douwe gave a pear tree and some fruit bushes; Caroline gave four rhubarb plants. Petra gave a box of bees and a box of butterfly seeds. Arja gave strawberry plants. Along the road, we found wood chips and tree trunks. Aunt Harmke’s flowers grow safely in the greenhouse each week.
And so the garden, after only a few weeks, already lived up to its name.
A beginner must look at himself as one setting out to make a garden for his Lord’s pleasure on most unfruitful soil which abounds in weeds. His Majesty roots up the weeds and will put in good plants instead.
Saint Teresa of Avila
—
Would you like to see the whole development of the garden year round?
Every month, I wrote a little update; there is a whole list of the blogs at the end of this one.
You better make yourself
The Garden of Abundance
a huge pot of hot tea,
get a blanket,
dive in a cosy corner
and read along:
January & February: The Covered Garden
March: Dream in Your Dreamhouse; and get to work!
April: The garden unveiled (an announcement)
May: How was the Grand Opening of the Garden? Here you see everyone cheering when we opened the garden in April ‘24
June: My garden in June
Juli: My garden in June
August: My garden in July
September: A little rabbit in Mrs. Mc. Janneke’s garden
Oktober: A future full of hope (You’ve never read this one before)
November: Thanksgiving Thoughts
December: There and back again: The covered garden
Glass house as empty as possible to avoid rats and other animals that I am not esppecially font of.
Resting watering cans
Resting garden tools.
I tucked the garden in with fresh leaves. What a wonderful way to wrap up, just as we tucked in our children, night after night when they went to sleep.
Let’s take it easy these weeks.
Kind regards, from my soil, to yours.