“Gardeners, I Think, Dream Bigger than Emperors.”

– old narrow driveway about to be replaced!

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.”
John Muir

I believe this set of photographs serves to provide a better idea of what is happening here in the front garden at Maul-Hall.

As you can see (above), the “driveway” is not even wide enough for the small wheelbase of Rebekah’s Rav-4. Then it is ankle-turning terrain getting out on either side. So the retaining wall is getting pushed back (lined up even with the side of the house) and the current paving material will be replaced with a nice wide parking area comprised of what Gene (our landscape designer) calls “curb blocks.”

So it is “goodbye” to the narrow concrete strips.

Then, as you can see, the retaining wall that runs parallel to the sidewalk is being reworked and the soil amended so we can grow actual grass and plants instead of the healthy collection of weeds we have been cultivating to date.

If it was just me working on this you would likely see the occasional hole dug then a plant or a tree thrown in before being left, essentially, to fend for itself.

This, however, is an integrated landscape design that is structural and systemic in terms of preparation and architecture – before the first plant is even vetted and interviewed for possible inclusion.

A lot like faith:

This entire project serves as a striking metaphor for engaging with a life of faith (If, that is, our understanding of faith involves something more than occasional church attendance, prayer when we are desperate and a less than generous commitment to stewardship).

My faith, like gardening, must be an intentional investment or it is nothing. We have to till the soil. We have to do structural remediation. And we have to make plans and commitments designed to create something strong and lasting and beautiful.

To some extent, our renovation of this 1874 home is our gift to Tarboro’s historic district. Even more so this garden project, this framing of the house in something beautiful that will grow over time, is the kind of gift that our community can appreciate and enjoy.

Neither faith nor front garden are intended to be hidden away but to benefit the community where God has planted us and called us to be.