Creative Hearts

Lois Vermeer says she enjoys “the opportunity to design, arrange, and landscape.” She also enjoys going to nurseries and other people’s gardens, “always open to new ideas.”

Gayle Wyma calls it creative experimenting. “I make a plan, then see how myl ideas for color combination and texture turn out. If I don’t like it, I can move things around and try another plan.”

I share their creative pleasure. This spring, I moved a dozen coral bells from miscellaneous locations to create a curved border for my shade garden, alternating new varieties my multiples of the traditional one with etched green leaves and pink flowers.

I decided to give the new roadside bed a background of tall grasses. In a few years they will form a nice backdrop and lend privacy to our backyard.

I found a location for the cracked plate whose potter had labeled “Mercy”—in front of a seated angel.

Sometime we shape the garden; sometimes it almost seems to shape itself. If I am quiet enough, sometimes I hear it ask for changes. At the moment the front yard orange day lilies—the ones that do so well in Iowa ditches—are asking to move to a larger space in the backyard. When they finish blooming, I will do as they ask.

Responding brings joy. Lois says, “I love to see the perennials burst forth in spring. Every garden season has its surprises.”

When our gardens summon our creativity, our hearts respond to the Great Creator. And joy blooms.