Make a Mary Garden (& Enter a Contest, Too)

May is just around the corner.

So, I am already thinking about what we might do for our annual Mini Mary Gardens. I am also dreaming about finally putting together a full-size Mary Garden in our yard. 

Even if time, resources, and life do not line up for me to create a beautiful outdoor Mary Garden, though, I am excited at the possibility of inspiring my children in the creation of this years' Mini Mary Gardens by sharing with them news of  a contest the Museum of Family Prayer is running, which you might be interested in, too.

On the Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church (May 24), the Museum of Family Prayer will launch its 2nd Annual Mary Garden Contest!, which aims to  encourage gardeners and gardener wannabes to do something concrete to give witness to Christ our Life by creating beautiful spaces for personal meditation, family prayer, and observing the glorious natural wonder that God created.

Whereas traditional Mary Gardens have historically been enclosed gardens filled with flowers and herbs whose names connect to Our Lady which are planted around a statue of the Holy Virgin, the Museum of Family Prayer is opening the  proverbial field to include any space filled with plants and flowers where you and your family might go with Our Lady to focus on prayers, peace, and beauty.

A porch, a corner of an apartment, a spot in your yard...  Anywhere where you can grace your hearts and home with God's presence by creating your very own Mary Garden is fair game.

What a fun way to encourage some creative springtime planting fun and some summer-into-fall peaceful prayer.

Be sure to keep watch of the official contest page for forthcoming details. In the meantime, happy planning and planting.

Blessed Virgin, pray for us.

Make an Edible Mini Mary Garden!

St. Isadore the Farmer's feast day is coming up this week and it's Mary's month, so it's a perfect time to make an Edible Mini Mary Garden!

All you'll need is some potting soil, a small Mary statue, Marian peg doll or other Mary image, a pot, some symbolic plants, and any bits of decor you'd like.

This year, I will be getting whatever I can find at our local garden store, trying to stick with edible herbs and flowers such as:

• sage (Mary's Shawl)
• spearmint (Mary's Mint)
• thyme (The Virgin's Humility)
• rosemary (Mary's Nosegay)
• parsley (Our Lady's Little Vine)
• nasturtium (St. Joseph's Flower)
• pansies (Our Lady's Delight)
• Sweet William (Lady Tuft)
• violet (Our Lady's Modesty)
• strawberry (Fruitful Virgin)
• impatiens (Our Lady's Earrings)

If you'd like to try other plants, look at All About Mary where you can find one of my favorite  lists of symbolic Mary plants.

***
UPDATE:

We ended up planting these:

Since I could not find our Mary statues we just printed pictures of Mary, glued them to upside down plastic forks, and "laminated" them with packing tape They've been holding up and filled in nicely within a month.

This one...

...became this:

And this one...

... became this:

And, this one...

became this:

We love them!

***

If you'd like some picture inspiration, you might take a peak at our first Mary Garden Baskets made years ago for Mother's Day...

Make a Mary Garden Basket

Or the almost annual posts I've shared with the Mini Mary Gardens we've made on our own or with friends...

Make a Mini Mary Garden

Mini Mary Gardens

Make a Mini Mary Garden

Happy planting! Have a beautiful St Isadore the Famer feast day and Marian month of May.

St. Isadore the Farmer and Blessed Virgin Mary, prayer for us.

Make a Mini-Mary Garden {Year 3}

We began celebrating the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima a day early this month by joining friends for a children's adoration hour followed by making our third annual mini-Mary gardens. 

Four families gathered together and about a dozen children planted gardens (even if we did not get photos of everyone.)

This year, the weather was not on our side, so we made our Mary Gardens inside. 

{Disclosure:  Some of the links below are affiliate ones.}


This year, for our gardens, we used:

• herbs and flowers.  (A friend brought us basil, Raspberry Dianthus, and Montego Yellow Snapdragon to use this year.  You could use traditional Mary Garden plants, too.)
  
  
  

  

• a variety of pots that are about 6 inches deep.  (This year, my children re-used the heavy, breakable pots we purchased at a local discount shop last year, because I forgot to order the 14-inch TerraBowl Planters like the ones friends used last year.)
  
  
  
  

  

• small statues of Mary.  (We could only find one of our Immaculate Heart of Mary Statue Favors from years past, so we used other statues we had around the house.  Our clever friend also brought popsicle sticks, scissors, glue, tape, and printouts of suns and Mother Mary images so children could add a Mary with a "dancing sun" to their pots in honor of Our Lady of Fatima.)
  
  
  

• potting soil

• hand trowels 

• glass gems
  
  

  

• shells

• other decorative items from nature or your craft bin (We added dried straw flowers to the mic this year, which were popular.)
  
  

  

Each of the children's gardens was unique and beautiful, and we are grateful to our friend for organizing our third annual planting!

A How-To and Prior Gardens

Read a how-to with step-by-step photos of the making of our first Mini-Mary Gardens.

Also, enjoy a peak our second annual Mini-Mary Gardens, which brought my daughter such delight as she nibbled into the first literal fruit of them - a delicious, red, ripe, strawberry!

You might also enjoy making Mary Baskets, using flowers and plants related to Our Lady.

It's truly easy (and fun!) to make these lovely, seasonal gardens in honor of Our Lady.  We'd love to see pictures of yours if you make one!

Two More Days to Make a Mini-Mary Garden

Yesterday, my daughter woke to a red, ripe strawberry.  She was so excited.
 

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

{Disclosure:  Some of the links below are affiliate ones.  Should you click through them and make any purchase, we may receive small compensation at no extra cost to you.  Thank you for supporting us as we continue Training Happy Hearts in our children and ourselves, sharing about it here.)
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.