The weather is still waffling. April is done but now it’s May, which means it MAY freeze or not, MAY rain or NOT, MAY hit 30 or 100 in Oklahoma. Still it is time for gardening the blooms are telling us.

On a recent Saturday, an intrepid band of church members and fans of First Christian Church spent the day toiling to prepare their Friendship Garden for planting --- an annual event. Armed with shovels, wheelbarrows and equipment from Habitat for Humanity, another church ministry, the men spread a huge truckload of wood chips donated by Bruce Williams Tree Services. They put down garden paths and outlined the plots. Big thanks to Tom Hoddy, Pastor Stephen Johnson, Dr. Ron Kreger, Charles Smith, Bobby Wilson, and teenage help Charlie and Tristan for their might and muscles.

Friendship Garden, located at 4th and Cleveland on FCC property, has offered garden plots to the public since 2009. Cost is $20 for the season per plot/bed which includes water. Obviously not a profit enterprise, it is a ministry to share the land for the benefits of food, health and spirituality gained in being outdoors and connecting with nature. There are in-ground plots and raised beds (two 2x4 tanks on blocks on pavers for access). There are water hydrants spaced throughout.

Gardeners bring their own seeds, plants and tools. Sunshine and the soil do the rest. The 90x90 ft garden is organic --- no non- organic pesticides or weed killers are allowed. All vegetables, herbs, and flowers are welcome except marijuana or hallucinogens.

This means there is an endless possibility for garden and culinary projects. How about a garden for salsa ingredients? Salads? For special dietary needs like an alkaline diet. An exclusive herb garden for fresh or dried! Baby or miniature veggies? Fresh flowers for cutting, table arrangements, drying --- or dyeing. The author’s daughter gifted her a few years back with a handknitted gold shawl dyed with zinnias from the garden. A spa garden for soaps, for candles, for growing luffa sponges. Yes they are from plants. Make a worm garden for fishing. Make a bean pole teepee for kids. Try to grow giant pumpkins or 4 foot cabbages for the county fair. It has been done. Mental therapy? Work off that hissy fit or that work tension and replace it with quiet, peace, and your own thoughts from the rhythms of hoeing.

There have been many memorable moments in this garden since 2009. There were the early years of storing and drawing the water from 50 gallon drums by hand. Plotluck picnics. There was the year we had a guard mockingbird who attacked, chased all other birds away and perched and talked to us as we worked. There was a year when a gardener hid fake snakes everywhere and we screamed. The year 2 women experimented with fish fertilizer they made from their dock on Grand Lake. And two gardeners competed to grow the tallest okra plants, over 10 ft tall. There was the year we found the little glass medicine bottle stamped 1893 from Panton Pharmacy in Ponca City (now displayed in the church). There was the year we found a check for $40,000 signed and endorsed that may have come from a bank robbery in Blackwell. Another year a state organization used part of the garden to test plastic row covers. A year an elderly couple taught their grandchildren to garden. A humbling incident when an old destitute man with a tiny child asked for the food fallen on the ground. And a time a grieving gardener who had lost a husband and son that year drew comfort from 2 tiny yellow butterflies that constantly flitted about her whenever she weeded. You CAN grow through what you go through. We have the dirt on making memories.

If you are interested in gardening this year, call Brenna at 580-762-1667 soon for your choice of spots.