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MEBarrett
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| Posted: April 05 2005 at 6:13pm | IP Logged
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Ok, it hasn't snowed in a week and I think spring might actually be sticking around. For years now I have been intending to have a dedicated Mary Garden but I have never gotten around to it. Has anyone dedicated a spot to the Blessed Mother?? I have a statue and it it surrounded by flowers but I am wondering if anyone has paid attention to the symbolism of the flowers in the garden. The Mary Garden website is nice but a little overwhelming.
Any suggestions? Or even better pictures?
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Mary Ellen
Mom to seven beautiful kids
Tales from the Bonny Blue House
O Night Divine
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stefoodie
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| Posted: April 05 2005 at 9:53pm | IP Logged
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Hi, Mary Ellen, a Mary Garden is what we're doing this year as this is our first spring in our new home. I don't have the Mary statue itself yet, I'm getting it next month. As for flowers, I started last year by making a list (taken from the Mary Garden website you linked to) of all the plants I'd like to put there... I ordered about 25 seeds by mail (some of them are REALLY hard to find!) -- then I posted at and traded through gardenweb.com so I now have about 200 kinds of flower seeds, plus a number of bulbs (I also traded for some of those at the plant exchange).... it really saved me a bunch of money to trade instead of having to buy all those seeds myself. Then I got some copper plant markers, which we will label with the Latin name, the popular name, and the religious name (if we can get all of that in there!)
What I plan to do is have the Mary statue, probably on a pedestal or at least a few rocks, then behind it a couple of upright evergreens (on order from forestfarm), then around her starting with taller flowers then growing shorter as it gets farther away from her, until the bottom. Right now I've only got bulbs in there which I've tried to arrange tall-to-short.
I also started wintersowing my seeds in December (see wintersown.org or the wintersowing forum at gardenweb)-- so depending on what germinates or not... those are the flowers that will be around her. Interestingly, the suggestions on the Mary garden website are not only for flowers, e.g., there's fragaria vesca, so i'm planting strawberries as well, which the children love.
I'm also planting other things that aren't on the Mary Garden list, but are related to Mary, like blueberries (her mantle's color).
Interestingly, there are also people that do "Scripture gardens", and I've seen lists that include just about everything, esp. fruits (apple!) and vegetables that are mentioned in the Bible. If we have any extra markers I might mark my veggies with scripture verses as well.... I'll post a picture later this year when our garden is done.
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stef
mom to five
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MaryM
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| Posted: April 06 2005 at 2:19am | IP Logged
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This book, Mary's Flowers, is a very thorough book on the topic and might be less overwhelming than the website. It has info on lots of flowers listed with drawings, meditations, and legends about the flower. It also includes history of Mary Gardens, pictures of some Mary Gardens around the country, suggested flowers for first-time Mary Gardens, herbal Mary gardens, indoor Mary gardens, and finally a longer listing of other Marian flowers without the pictures and stories.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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JennGM
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| Posted: April 06 2005 at 7:21am | IP Logged
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MaryM wrote:
| This book, Mary's Flowers, is a very thorough book on the topic and might be less overwhelming than the website. |
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I love this book!  Also, for more simple explanations, although the photos are just black and white is Ann Ball's book Catholic Traditions in the Garden.
If you delve deeper into Mary Garden's website there are a lot of illustrations that can help you. When I looked on the internet, it's funny how every site refers back to mgardens.org!
My approach is knowing what is available in the nurseries, like marigolds, etc. and then going the Mary Garden's website or book and finding the Marian flowers. Then I proceed from there. Just because they are in the book doesn't mean I have to use them all! Some aren't suitable to my area! Last year I planted seeds that would bloom all summer, at different stages. It was such fun, and so beautiful.
Some other sites or articles: Apologia, Mary Gardens WARNING!! This site is not aligned with the Magisterium!
Madonna House: Mary in the Garden
More from Ann Ball
Right now I'm mourning because I can't do a garden this year because we are still househunting...we should be out of here! I hope to get a house that I can plant a few tomatoes and marigolds this year! God willing!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Erica Sanchez
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| Posted: April 06 2005 at 10:47am | IP Logged
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Thank you for this beautiful idea and all the wonderful resources. My husband surprised me at Christmas with a small statue of Mary that he restored - it belonged to my grandparents, given to them by my greatgrandparents we think as a wedding present! It's simple, but beautiful and now I should do it justice with a Mary Garden. I definitely do not have a green thumb, though, so this should be interesting!!
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Have a beautiful and fun day!
Erica in San Diego
(dh)Cash, Emily, Grace, Nicholas, Isabella, Annie, Luke, Max, Peter, 2 little souls ++, and sweet Rose who is legally ours!
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momtomany
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| Posted: April 07 2005 at 8:28am | IP Logged
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I started out with a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe in my herb garden. My youngest daughter has a great devotion to Her. Then when we lost our 10th child Joseph Francis, we acquired a stature of St Joseph and then one of St Francis. My husband had already given me a statue of St Fiacre (patron of gardeners) for an anniversary one year. Last year he gave me a statue of St Anne. So now my herb and perennial garden is perhaps becoming a Heaven garden? I am interested in making it more of a Mary's garden though. Also have to get moving on starting my vegetable plants from seed. I've got a fairly big vegetable garden too.
Thanks for all the wonderful Mary garden links!
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Mary Ann in PA
wife to MIchael, mom to Elizabeth, Becca, Tim, Peter, Andrew, Sarah, Matthew, John, Leah and Joseph
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Mary Garden
