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From the Bible's first chapter to its final chapter, the garden is a constant theme in the story of God's love for this creation. It is in the garden that the man and woman are first placed, as God's partners in the care of creation. The city of God, the New Jerusalem, the final completion of the Divine Intent, is built around a garden. And in between, gardens and plants are employed as metaphors and images of life with God. Our Lord Jesus used the images of vineyards, grapevines, fig trees, sowing and reaping to help us grasp something of what it means to live faithfully. It was in a garden that He faced his greatest struggle; it was a garden that witnessed His resurrection.
This garden, filled with the plants mentioned in Holy Scripture, is meant to be a place for you, a place where you may rest, or pray, or learn, or listen for the breath of God. St. Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-Century German mystic and Benedictine nun, wrote of her visions of God's viriditas, the 'greening power' of the Almighty. In her greatest work, Scivias, she quotes God's word to her: 'I am the breeze that nurtures all things green. I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits. I am the rain coming from the dew that causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life.' May your soul find laughter in the joy of life here, surrounded by the beauty of this garden - or at least a small chuckle of delight in the faithfulness and optimism of the women and men who have created this garden in the Hill Country of Texas!
Welcome to you! Enjoy the garden! May Christ's viriditas restore your soul!
Jarrell V. Sharp
Plant History by Peggy Benson
First of all, I would like to list the major sources that I used in planning the Biblical Garden for our church. Planting a Bible Garden by F. Nigel Hepper and Plants of the Bible and How to Grow Them by Allan A. Swenson were most helpful, as was the Internet. When I first began studying about Biblical Gardens four years ago, I found very little information on the Internet, but, as I continued to search, there was more and more information available to me there. Even today, there are very few gardens that are planted with only Biblical plants.  St. John the Divine Church in New York has a wonderful Biblical Garden that my husband and I have visited twice, but due to the severe winters they are limited in what they can plant. Even so, I was able to get inspiration and assistance from them on how to go about planning for such a garden.
In researching what plants would survive in our area, I discovered that due to climate similarities many of the Bible plants could be grown in the Texas Hill Country. In Biblical times, gardens were essentially for food, medicine or shade, not simply to display the beauty of flowers as we do today. As you walk through the Garden you will find beautiful plants and flowers but most of them have a value in addition to their beauty.
Many of the trees in the ancient gardens were fruit trees such as olive, fig, date palm, and pomegranate and you will see each of them as you tour the Garden. One of the trees that you probably think of from the Bible is the apple tree in the Garden of Eden. However, you will not find an apple tree in our Garden because botanists believe that apple trees did not exist in that area but that it most probably was an apricot tree instead that Eve found in the Garden of Eden. Since apricots are not easy to grow here, a pear tree has been substituted in its place. Unfortunately, the Bible translators were not botanists so sometimes different Bible translations use different but similar words for the plants. Verses from the King James translation of the Bible will have the closest description of the plants but the newer versions will, in most cases, give you a good description as well.
 Biblical plants found in this Garden fall in the categories of herbs, vegetables, bulbs, vines, shrubs and trees. There are approximately seventy-five (75) of these plants in the Garden, with a few more difficult-to-find plants still being searched for at this time. In our plantings, it would have been helpful if we could have arranged them by category or in alphabetical order but since each plant has special sun and water requirements it was important that we place them where they would grow best. All plants found in the Garden are listed in alphabetical order in the plant section which follows this article so as you walk through the Garden you may look up a plant and get information about it. It will not be possible for you to see all plants in one visit to the Garden because some are annuals that grow only during the summer and others are perennials that go dormant during winter. The bulbs will bloom mainly in the spring and foliage color will be more visible during the fall. Therefore, we invite you to visit the Garden often to see the changes that happen from season to season.
MORE TO COME!
Keep coming back and seeing new additions to the online Biblical Garden!
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