One of the best ways to enjoy God’s world is to plant a garden! After all, it all started with a garden! A garden does not necessarily have to be neat rows of endless plants that have to be tilled, weeded, sprayed, or mowed. Not at all. Imagine this:
Picture yourself in a forest where almost everything around you is food. Mature and maturing fruit and nut trees form an open canopy. If you look carefully, you can see fruits swelling on many branches—pears, apples, persimmons, pecans, and chestnuts. Shrubs fill the gaps in the canopy. They bear raspberries, blueberries, currants, hazelnuts, and other lesser-known fruits, flowers, and nuts at different times of the year. Assorted native wildflowers, wild edibles, herbs, and perennial vegetables thickly cover the ground. You use many of these plants for food or medicine. Some attract beneficial insects, birds, and butterflies. Others act as soil builders, or simply help keep out weeds. Here and there vines climb on trees, shrubs, or arbors with fruit hanging through the foliage—hardy kiwis, grapes, and passionflower fruits. In sunnier glades large stands of Jerusalem artichokes grow together with groundnut vines. These plants support one another as they store energy in their roots for later harvest and winter storage. Their bright yellow and deep violet flowers enjoy the radiant warmth from the sky.
—Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier, Edible Forest Gardens
Care for the earth
An edible forest garden or permaculture is a description of what The Creation’s Garden would have been. The father of permaculture is Bill Mollison, an Australian who in the 1970s coined the word permaculture from a combination of permanent culture and permanent agriculture, emphasizing that people could provide for their needs by creating self-sustaining relationships among humans, plants, and animals that benefit them all. Mollison based permaculture’s principles and practices on this ethical foundation: care for the earth, care for people, and share surplus resources.(www.permacultrue.org).
Whether permaculture, organic gardening, an herb garden, or a flower gardens, growing plants and trees in our yard, patio or window box can bring us joy and make us healthier! In addition, to a home garden, growing our own foods is a wonderful way to help our children or grandchildren see the miracle of life. So many children don’t know where food comes from. The experience of digging in the dirt and planting seeds that actually turn into food is never forgotten.
As a helpful resource, I have lots of articles on healthy ingredients and recipes that you can implement into your daily life.
If you’d like to dig deeper into my journey of discovering God’s plan for health and wellness, check out my book, Made For Paradise: God’s Original Plan for Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Rest.
