I chose the title 'God and Gardens' to reflect my longtime interest in spirituality and the working of the earth.

Such a big word! For such a few-lettered word, hasn't it grown to be enormous? Now, if only truth, love, purity and beauty can gain the same scope in our lives.

When I was ten years old, I decided I wanted to grow up to be a missionary. That plan was fun to have. The minister's wife walked to church with me every Sunday, as if I were capable of engaging in the serious conversation that walking with an adult of her stature entailed. We walked and talked past the Congregational Church courtyard which was bordered with three great lilac varieties-- the heavy-blossomed white, the grandmother deep-purple, and the common grey-blue, which bloomed earliest.

By the time I was set for college, I had become an agnostic, for argument's sake more than anything. At the end of my second semester I met with a serious accident and was given an out-of-the-body, near-death experience. God communicated with me, so the period of agnosticism was over. I recovered from the accident, and the following year, in the autumn of 1968, I first heard about Avatar Meher Baba.

I traveled to India in 1987 and again in 1991, to visit Meher Baba's homes at Meherabad and Meherazad. I lived near the Meher Spiritual Center, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina from 1985 until 2000. The 500-acre retreat center is open to day-visitors and overnight guests who have an interest in knowing more about Meher Baba.

There's a long story behind the tone of green used for the title of God and Gardens. In short, Mehera Irani loved that color, and she was and remains the Earth's perfect gardener. You can find stories about Mehera's gardening on this site as well as through many of the resources dedicated to Meher Baba.

My own gardening story began long before I was born. My great-grandparents homesteaded on the Western Slope of Colorado, in Plateau Valley. They must have absorbed some of that high-mountain ranching soil into their DNA, for I love gardening here. I returned home a few years ago after loving many gardens in South Carolina and southeastern Iowa. I live a short drive from where I was born, on the outskirts of Grand Junction, near Palisade, a major fruit-growing region.

We have a thousand square-foot garden which really came alive this past summer. These photographs were taken from nearly the same spot in March and July.

Those funny looking tents beyond the patio cover the two hills of peppers, protecting the Bell varieties from the full brunt of the afternoon sun. We used the French Intensive method of planting the peppers, spacing them about six inches apart on both the sides and the top of the deeply fertile hills.

Path from the yard into the garden, under the ripening Concord grapes.

Looking back to the yard from the dahlia bed. Can you see the border collies Beau and Megan behind the fence, in the shadow of the crabapple tree?

They are so happy when the wait's over!

Megan loves to ride shotgun with Jack

Jack shows the horses to brother-in-law Glenn, whose tennis-shoe must smell good.

Aren't horses wonderful. Remember the scene in ´National Velvet´ when Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet Brown said that? She was standing by the lilac bushes at the Grand National racecourse, all the horses were being led by, and there were the deep lavender eyes next to the lavender flowers.

"Ohh," she said in hypnotized delight, "horses!"

Friends urged me to not use the word 'God' in the title of the magazine. I might be mistaken for a fundamentalist lunatic, they said. But there'd be no mistake on that score. I am a fundamentalist lunatic when it comes to Velvet Brown, horses and lilacs.

I´ve heard that ´National Velvet´ was one of Mehera Irani´s favorite movies. That alone would move Elizabeth Taylor and all concerned toward the front of the line wouldn´t it?

I couldn´t end this album without showing a few pictures of my kids. Here´s the oldest, Kimaaron Kassidi, with her son, Levi, in Sarasota, Florida.

Amber, Hannah and Keilayn posed in a loose style after Hannah´s basic training graduation ceremony. Finally, the new sailor smiles.

Eruch Jessawala was one of Meher Baba´s closest disciples. He gave us a hug as our stay in Meherabad was ending, in 1991.

Keilayn´s son, Daniel Ivan, with his gramma on a big rock in a park near his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (And that´s just how he talks.)

My son Gabriel Ryan was married on July Fourth of 2004! Isn´t Jennifer gorgeous?

copyright © 2006 God and Gardens