She has been going outside every morning to check our mini-Mary gardens, hoping to find a berry before the many squirrels and other critters that visit our yard do.
I shared my daughter's joy as she discovered the first ripe berry of the season in her brand-new mini-Mary garden. She was so delighted to harvest it, show it off to her brother and Daddy, and offer to share a bit of it, despite how tiny it was. I was equally delighted that the kindness of a friend who has hosted a mini-Mary garden event for friends two years in a row brought both figurative and literal fruit to our lives.
The figurative fruit included time spent together in prayer, planting, and play with friends, as well as the practical life skill of learning to garden for my children. The literal fruit, of course, is the strawberry!
Simple preparations have made way for savored blessings!
Making This Year's Mini-Mary Gardens
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This year, we made our gardens exactly the same way we did last year, using:
-
parsley, basil, strawberries and nasturtium, because that is what a local nursery had in stock. (You could also use traditional Mary Garden plants.)
- 10-14 inch round pots that
are 6+ inches deep or strawberry planters. (My children used new heavy, breakable pots
purchased at a local discount shop since our pots from last year already are growing with perennial strawberry plants Some of our friends wisely replanted last year's berry plants so they could re-use the
lightweight, unbreakable 14-inch TerraBowl Planters that they purchased last year and others used pots they had empty at home.)
- small statues of Mary. (We re-used our Immaculate Heart of Mary Statue Favors which were ordered inexpensively as a twelve count last year to be split among friends. Some of our friends used other statues this year.)
- potting soil
- small pots and paper cups (We forgot our trowels, so we simply used little generic green pots to transfer soil. We also gave a small pot to one of the littles in our group to make a micro mini-Mary garden!)
- glass gems (which were washed up and re-used from last year.)
- shells (which, again, were re-used from last year.)
- other decorative items from nature and our craft bins.
Before making the gardens, we gathered for a faith-chat and to pray a decade plus of the rosary.
After making them, we enjoyed sunshine, play, and chatting. And, of course, since making the gardens, we've begun enjoying small harvests from them.
I dare say that making mini-Mary gardens will continue to be a beloved annual event for my children. Perhaps you'd like to take some time to begin a similar tradition before Mary's month of May ends on Tuesday. I'd love to see snapshots if you do!
If you'd like more details on how to make the gardens, please go to Make a Mini-Mary Garden to find them.
