Saint Mark's Church

Yesterday Father Phelps ended his poignant sermon by stating: “Our story starts in a garden (Genesis) and ends in a city (Revelation). Here we are a church surrounded by a garden in the middle of the city.” How well we tend our garden is an outward reflection of how well we are tending to each other. At the end of the service yesterday we blessed these gardens hoping for a bountiful growing season with amenable temperatures and enough rain to keep our plants lush and sated. Liturgically speaking our garden connects us to the earth from which we came. There are only a few times we are directly reminded of this. Ash Wednesday is one; the sixth Sunday of Easter is the other.

Since I last wrote to you we’ve made some great progress getting our gardens prepped for the warmth and sun ahead. We pruned, weeded, transplanted, planted and topped things off with a nice layer of mulch and fertilizer. This year you’ll find some new additions including two new rose bushes, a climbing yellow rose in the central garden along the gate, some bright annuals (tropical begonia, coleus, geranium, lantana, canna), perennials (solomon’s seal, foamflower, sedums) and even a lotus! That submerged container by the Japanese maple is the lotus, not a birdbath. ☺

Just this past Sunday our stately southern magnolia got a haircut allowing some more light into our flower beds below and clearer sightlines onto our beautiful parish hall with it’s gabled slate roofs. The saucer magnolias in the central garden have also been thinned out a bit including removal of some understory branches and dreaded sucker growth, a tree’s version of a cowlick, the super straight looking branches that emerge from a prior cutting. That said there is still much to tackle in both the west and central gardens. Invasive weeds are on the retreat but a couple more Saturdays will seal their fate. More mulch is also needed particularly for the central garden. More annuals will also be placed in the west garden to ensure we have a vibrant, lush showing all season.

On the virtual side, I’m organizing a Google document of volunteers within and outside our parish interested in contributing their time, energy and resources to our garden. Soon we will also have a twitter account and corresponding facebook page to help bridge the digital divide and inform people of what we’re doing, what our needs are and how they can get involved.

Our next organized opportunity for you to get involved is Saturday the 18th of May. We will be weeding, planting, mulching and watering. I need your help to make our gardens really shine this year. Even an hour of your time is appreciated. If Saturdays don’t work for you, I regularly check in during the week and will make time for anyone who wants to lend a hand. 

When: Saturday, May 18th 10:30 to 2:30
Where: West & Central Gardens of Saint Mark’s
Contact: Geoff Kees Thompson 
       garden@saintmarksphiladephia.com

Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. 
Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up. 
These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name; 
They will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.
Isaiah 55:13

 Peace, Love & Roses

Geoff Kees Thompson