I get raised eyebrows when I tell people that my hobby is yard work. Pulling weeds, mowing grass and pruning shrubs are one of the most resented necessities of home ownership for most people. Having grown up on the plot of ground where we now live, I can recall how I detested hoeing the garden and weeding my mother’s flower beds; but something was engrained in my psyche that found reward in physical labor and dirt under my fingernails. I’ve not gotten into hunting, fishing and golfing but find joy in my yard.

Maybe it has something to do with the diversion from study, writing, sermon preparation, travel and speaking; perhaps it relates to feeling connected with nature and the beauty of God’s vast diversity of flora or His intention that man work by the sweat of his brow. Nevertheless, we are experiencing joy and fulfillment in seeing plants mature and the grand design of our landscaping take shape.

This is our third spring, so shrubs are maturing and flower beds filling out. We planted trees and basic shrubs–hawthorns, boxwoods and nandina around the house when it was built almost ten years ago. But it was before moving in 2010 that we did final grading, mulching future flower gardens around the perimeter of the property and planted background shrubs. We were still sodding last summer and the yard still looked fairly sparse and barren.

I finally got my signature lawn decor–a dumped over barrel of petunias–in a new street-side flower bed, with dwarf roses amidst the junipers and purple muhly grass behind a pebble walkway. Caladiums are flourishing under the shade trees and roses are growing up the trellises built in front of air conditioning condensers.

The prize rose of the season was a large yellow bloom with subtle pink edges around the fringe of the petals. This was the first spring when the azaleas exploded with color throughout the yard. I’m not quite accustomed to this occurring in early March, and even  late February in Mississippi after the peak blooming was in April in Virginia. The white foliage of our crabapple, bradford pears and cherry trees have long faded and now first-time perennials are beginning to bloom. One of the greatest joys is the emerging of fragrant blossoms of gardenias planted just a few feet away from our front porch swing!

Bobbye is incredulous when I tell her we are almost to the “maintenance mode” of yard work. Every week requires the basic edging, weeding along the fence, mowing and remaining ever-vigilant to extract occasional stray weeds that persist in unwanted places, but she knows there will always be another project and the vision is unending.

One of the most recent projects is a long-desired herb garden just outside our garden room door. I was amazed at how tall the cilantro, mint and parsley quickly grew, but we discovered how delectable the flavoring of fresh herbs picked and crushed at the time of cooking compared with the bottled source from the grocery. Now the challenge is to learn what to do with our abundant supply of thyme, rosemary, basil and oregano! We are not quite sure which to use with which foods, but I did enjoy some tasty scrambled eggs with cilantro, oregano and thyme, just because they were available.