More From Mike C. Bertoglio

My dad was a high school teacher, and in the summers he would do landscaping as a side job. He also helped design gardens for friends and family and knew a lot about putting the “right plant in the right place.” My brother and I helped out those summers and over time developed an appreciation for plants. As a biology major in college, I enjoyed taking many botany courses including a favorite course—mycology, the study of mushrooms. After my dad’s death in 2004, I seemed to gain a greater interest in plants. After retiring from medical ultrasound work in 2009, I decided to take some classes in horticulture from a community college in Seattle. At one seminar, I met a landscaper who described his work as being a “plantsmith,” hence my online handle. 

It is a great hobby, and I am constantly amazed at each plant I meet that I don’t know. There are so many. This I interpret as part the infinite nature of God in creation—which is ongoing. Worldwide, there are probably thousands or maybe millions of plants we don’t know about, and new ones are being “created.” God loves variety.

Occasionally in gardens, I will see a sign about being closer to God in a garden than in a church. This is actually part of the poem “God’s Garden,” written by Dorothy Frances Gurney in 1913. The last lines of the poem read, “One is nearer God's heart in a garden/Than anywhere else on earth.”

Of course, it was often to a garden that our Lord would go when needing to be in prayer or seeking solace at a stressful time. He spent his last night of freedom with some of the disciples in a garden—Gethsemane. I like to think that he visited the garden more than once and that he also loved gardens. 

One of my favorite gardens is Kubota Garden in south Seattle. It is one of the hidden gems in Seattle and was started by the Kubota family in the 30s. They had a landscaping business then and still do today. What a legacy of beauty they have left for my generation and for those to follow. 

 Do you have a favorite garden? I would love to hear about it.