New Mary Gardener Tips

For New Gardeners

Suggestions for your first Mary Garden:

1. Plant an Indoor Windowsill Dish Mary Garden with one each of 4 to 6 House Plants of Our Lady, placed around a ceramic or plaster figurine of Mary or of Mary and the Christ Child in a deep dish of drained soil material. Plants are available from mail order greenhouses and some retail house plant suppliers (ordered by common or botanical names).

2. Plant an Outdoor Container Mary Garden on patio, terrace or deck, using a soil-filled 10" or 15" wide flower pot in which five or so ever-blooming annual Flowers of Our Lady can be positioned around a Marian figurine.

3. Plant a small Outdoor Mary Garden of three each (or more) of 6 to 10 Flowers of Our Lady, placed around a wall or pole mounted wayside shrine shelter and ceramic figurine, or around a pedestal mounted outdoor statue.

• Start with plants available from mail order or retail nurseries and some retail garden centers, or
• Start from seeds sown either directly in your garden; or sown indoors 4 to 6 weeks before outdoor seed sowing time (danger of frost past, in temperate climatic zones) and then transplanted to your garden. First blooms appear after 12 weeks or so of growth. Seeds available from mail order seed companies and some garden centers.

Copyright Mary's Gardens 1996

The John Stokes and Mary's Garden collection was transferred to the Marian Library in May 2013. In addition to his archives, manuscripts, artwork, and personal library, John S. Stokes also donated his extensive website. It was transferred to the Marian Library in early 2010. This particular entry is archived content original to Stokes' Mary's Gardens website. It is possible that some text, hyperlinks, etc. are outdated.