My daughter-in-law has taken to growing house plants as one of her hobbies. She was given the spider plant about four months ago and she has been diligently replanting the babies. We now have nine spider plants. We also have three peace lilies., A lemon tree, coleus, and a Christmas cactus.
My intention is that as we move towards the winter, I am going to try some indoor herb and lettuce gardening to add to our indoor forest. So I bought some stands from Amazon to organize our collection.
Sevy and I opened the box this morning.
Sevy would help me out by taking little breaks from the Mickey Mouse Club to come and use the little rubber mallet on the stakes.
When Joe got home from his Gideons prayer meeting, he helped me to finish up and get the plants positioned. I think it looks pretty good.
Today, in PRIME PRAYER, I felt impressed by God that I was to start looking at myself and my life through a gardener’s lens. You may remember that, just the other day I wrote a piece in which I confessed that it has been a good seven years since I had worked on the forest garden around the Vicarage. In truth, the forest garden at my home has been neglected for much longer than that.
When my family first moved to The Vicarage, back in the 1970’s, we didn’t own the little parcel of land to the left of our home. It was a wild patch of woods that came up almost to the edge of the house. Out back of the house, the yard was dominated by a giant weeping willow the top of which overshadowed the roof of the Vicarage. At night the willow’s whips would brush against my window panes giving me fits of fear. The Japansk was growing out of control all around the house and close in. Some of the bushes were as high as the second story windows.
When my father acquired the property next door in the late 1970’s his remedy was to clear cut the whole property. He removed the willow and most of the trees out back and he turned the forest next door into a field. I was so disappointed because I was already an avid birdwatcher by that time. In one day, the birds around the Vicarage, the squirrels, the chipmunks all lost their habitat.
While my father took down the trees and even stumped the property, he didn’t deal with the roots of roses, raspberries or blackberries. And that was the last time he ever really tended the property. He had good intentions. He just got busy with his business. The stockade fence he bought to surround the house lay out on the side of the Vicarage until it rotted away. The field regrew into a thorny hedge and once again into a dense forest. The animals came back again (well except for the flocks of evening grosbeaks, they seem to have left our state completely).
My father passed away and my mom who hated the outdoors as she aged just kind of let the whole house go. Then I moved back in after my divorce and the work began. It’s been a slow work, but we have made definite progress. We have now addressed most of the serious structural issues with the Vicarage itself. Now its time to look at the forest garden.
It is interesting. My first years in the Vicarage and as lead pastor of the church have been spent dealing with some rather large structural issues (roof, sills, plumbing, bathrooms, floors, siding). Likewise, our congregation’s first order of business when I became lead pastor was to replace the altar space and the ancient rug in the sanctuary. Then, we had to address the parking lot which had become largely unparkable. Finally, we had to address a plumbing issue we lovingly referred to as “the stink”.
I am no builder. The idea of me being a renovator or fixer-upper is actually laughable to everyone who knows me. I have spent these years feeling out of my depth… like I don’t know what I am doing. I have had to rely on others to tell me and direct me in what I didn’t know. I am thankful for those God has sent to help me over these years.
As I begin working on the forest garden. I realize I don’t even know where to begin. I don’t even know what I don’t know. As I begin the next steps of leading the church I realize I don’t know those next steps. I don’t know what I don’t know. And so just like I did with the house and the church in the beginning I am turning once again to the experts. For the garden I am beginning with this book by Dani Baker. For the church I am turning to the Lord in prayer and I am asking the congregation to join me in these prayers as I approach my upcoming sabbatical which is only nine weeks away, and I am connecting with my spiritual presbyter to find a mentor through the sabbatical process.
I am confident of this. I may not know what comes next for The Vicarage, the forest garden, or the church. This is a moment of many unknowns. But I serve a God who has known the answers for this time from before there was time. I will follow Him and the ones He sends to help, just like I did before. All is well, and all manner of things are well, and all manner of things shall be well!
I have not tended my garden for nearly seven years. I always had good intentions…but life just kind of kept getting in the way. This year life has changed. I find myself with a bit of “extra time”, and so I have gone back to the garden. It was foresty seven years ago when I last paid attention to it. Now, after seven years of neglect it is like I have a small Mirkwood forest on my hands.
All summer long I have mowed and weed whacked. I have moved raised beds. I have pruned and even weeded the beds. I have brought in new soil and turned over old soil. I have divided plants that were crowding each other and pulled up others to give room for new growth.
Still the forest runs wild around me. And you can never tell what wildness might visit you on any given day.
This little guy stopped by for a visit one day last week along with a groundhog I startles out of the daisies. Yesterday as I met with a missionary in the prayer tent we were visited by curious squirrels and chipmunks a flock of grackles and two hummingbirds. A rabbit even stopped by to chew the clover near us.
The flower gardens are out of control. I can’t keep ahead of the deadheading. But their purpose os fulfilled as they attract the pollinators to the forest garden.
This wall of hydrangeas is chock full of bees everyday. The harvest is beginning to come in.
I picked and ate our first tomato today. I also picked our first egg plant. It was tiny but Kristine cut it up and put it in the rice with tonight’s supper. We have picked a gallon of raspberries. The blueberries are just coming in this week. I think I missed the currants, but I will check to see if there are any left tomorrow on my day off.
I am just beginning the journey of permaculture in my yard, but I sense I am going to learn many lessons along the road. The first: I don’t control the harvest. It comes when it wants. I must catch it when it comes.
I went today to pick up Joe and his family from Logan airport. They are just returning from vacation in South Carolina at Joe’s mother’s house.
It has been a week and a half of working on the gardens and while everything is growing well, I feel like I have hardly pushed back the walls of the forest at all.
I did manage to mow a few paths through the bushes and I widened this path to the brook. I was hoping for more, but I suppose that was not realistic.
As July 4 approaches, there are lots of things blooming at the Vicarage
The second wave of lilies is beginning, even as the first wave has almost gone by. I have enough varieties now to get me through most of the summer.
The second variety of hosta is also beginning to flower.
I also have two stands of Queen Anne’s Lace putting in an appearance.
I have some baby tomatoes on the vine
And the eggplant is flowering.
I have been picking black raspberries for the last three days.
And the forest is filled with sumac berries
I will be spending July 4 in the garden when I am not grilling. What are you doing this weekend?
Today is my sabbath. I started the morning by drinking mint tea from my garden in the outdoor prayer chapel during Prime.
I have a pretty long to do list that I have compiled over the last week. I will probably get some of it done today, but it is Sabbath so a relaxed rhythm is in order.
Join me in my walk around the Vicarage gardens.
The day lilies are in full bloom now.
So is the giant hosta.
I love the delicate flowers of the lady’s mantle.
The fleabane is also in full bloom. These tiny white flowers on 3 foot stocks attract lots of pollinators to the garden. So many people pull these out of their gardens considering them weeds, but I love how they fill out space around the yard and bring in the bees.
The whole yard is filled with the scent of honeysuckle. It is really strong this year. I can smell it no matter where I am on the property.
This year the forest garden is attracting a large number of birds.
I have to pick up more suet for the feeders today. We have five or six hungry woodpeckers that are hanging around.
I have also set up an extra hummingbird feeder. I have a larger than average population of hummingbirds and they are constantly warring over the one feeder I usually put up. The second feeder seems to have solved the problem.
My Sabbath day is going to be filled with prayer and gardening and cleaning.
We are heading into peak blooming season here at the Vicarage.

The day lilies are beginning to openThe Lupine is going by, but still looks and smells beautifulThe Daisy garden is in full bloomThe tomatoes have started to flower and my herb garden has sprouted. I have cilantro, dill, parsley, chamomile, and thyme. I also have apple mint spearmint Greek and Italian oregano and lemon balm.
Of course, the Vicarage is a forest garden, a very old forest garden and as I walk about it this yearI am learning more about those who originally planted this small but very wild space.
The property is filled with liguster sometimes called Japansk. I’ve always called it honeysuckle because it smells so sweet, but it is actually a fragrant tree imported from Asia.We also have Walters Dogwood growing wild all over the property. It is a native of Korea.
At some point, somebody had a lot of Asian plants put onto the property. I am thankful because these plants add a wonderful fragrance to the garden.
We are also getting ready to add chickens to the Vicarage. my daughter-in-law is just putting on the final coats of sealant to the coop
I have yet to clear space for the coop. We have decided that a stand of sumac is going to be taken down to make space for our new residents.
There are lots of difficulties with forest gardening, but there is such beauty in having a small forest on the property, I wouldn’t change it for the world. These are the steeples of the Vicarage.
Over the years, I’ve tried to plant a perennial garden that would fill the grounds of the Vicarage. This is the first year that it looks like I succeeded, so what’s blooming at the vicarage this week?

The lupine is still in full bloom. I am hoping to gather some seeds to try and cultivate new little plants for next year. The bishop’s weed is everywhere. I keep pulling it out and it keeps coming back. It does make a pretty ground cover though.The gardens are also filled with wild buttercup. I am adding both this and the bishop’s weed to my garden vase on the mantle.I am cultivating this little area as a wild Daisy garden.The wild rose is in full bloom throughout the yard, and it is filling the air with sweetness.There are several large mullein plants on the property. I can’t wait till they bloom later in the season.The Kentucky rose, and the French rose also bloomed this week.Our first squash flowers are on the vines.And finally this little fella came backto life. We named him resurrection when he started to die, in hopes that he would make a comeback. It has been weeks and weeks, but it looks like our waiting has finally paid off.
I was describing the job of a minister to a friend the other day. It is not like most jobs. It’s the ultimate split shift rotation. I start in the early morning and then take a break for breakfast and to walk the dogs. Then I usually have some morning work to do. Then I take a break for lunch (usually I go home and walk the dogs during that time). Then I have an afternoon commitment of some kind and always more prayer. Then I take another break sometimes I get to work around the house and the garden and then it’s more prayer and sometimes an evening commitment.
Today for instance. I started with prayer around 4 A.M. and prayed for a few hours. Then Amanda and I had a funeral to attend for a dear lady we know through disabilities ministry .
Anne-Marie was a wonderful woman of faith and Amanda and I were blessed to be able to attend her funeral. We stayed for the reception and got to catch up with many church friends from the area.
Then it was back home to meet up with Joe and Kristine and Sevy. They had an open house to attend in a neighboring town this morning. The house was not something they were very interested in but they keep looking and waiting for the right thing to come along.
Kristine, Sevy and I then headed out to one of the two big events going on today. It’s Founder’s Day in Winchendon.
And Relay For Life in Gardner. We had church staff and leaders at both. The Prayer Shawl Ministry gave out 64 shawls at the Relay!
Meanwhile we had several of our members working as volunteers at the Founder’s Day event.
I was just an attendee at the Founder’s Day, but I had some great opportunities to chat with people from town including one of my classmates, and one of the police sergeants whom I have known since childhood.
Then I went home to do a bit of gardening and to put together my devotional video for the church and to get myself ready for church tomorrow morning
I opened up the bushes next to the drive a bit.
I have one more prayer session for bed. It’s been a wonderful day!
Notes From the Vicarage 