The Village Garden Club of La Jolla has worked with the Torrey Pines Christian Church to build a prayer garden located at the south and lower end of the church property.  The committee has been chaired by Karen Bowden.  The work will enhance the beauty and spiritual life of the church for its members and anyone who takes some quiet reflective time to sit and be in the garden.

The garden has been completed in April of 2008.  The plan is simple, respectful of the environment and provides a view open to natural beauty framed by existing eucalyptus.  There is already a feeling of solitude, reverence and renewal to the spot.  Some of this has been purposefully part of the plan and other parts of it have been waiting for the garden to bring it all into perspective.

A line of well established palms show the way to the garden from a point between the main sanctuary and the chapel.  Interestingly, in the Bible Palestine meant “land of palms.”  Three other points lend an aerial marker for the spot.  They are the cross on Mt. Soledad and the crosses that sit atop the sanctuary and the chapel.  The garden visitor will reflect beneath these three points.  These circumstances planned or not, lend symbolic meaning to the prayer garden.

For members of the Village Garden Club of La Jolla it is also symbolic that the work opened a vista to Mt. Soledad where pioneer San Diego horticulturist Kate Sessions maintained one of her nurseries.  Kate Sessions brought palms to the San Diego area, had a passion for drought tolerant plants and was also known for her work with aloes.

The plantings in the Torrey Pines Christian Church prayer garden provide an even deeper significance to the purpose of the garden, its beauty and environmental awareness.  Aloe ‘Soledad’ has been placed in the garden.  Proverbs 7:17 states, “I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.”  It is a lovely thought as one settles in for reflection.  Legend tells us that Adam carried one of the shoots of an aloe from the Garden of Eden.

Myrrh is frequently referenced in the Bible.  Sometimes myrrh was in a decoction created with other plant substances.  One of those substances came from the plant cistus.  It is believed that cistus was used in incense oils.  There is frequent reference in Genesis as well as other parts of the Bible to myrrh.  Cistus is used in plant groupings in the garden.

The grass festuca is also used in the garden.  In Peter 1:24 it is said, “For, all flesh is as grass.  And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass.”  In ancient times oil lamps were used and olive oil was said to burn the brightest.  Reeds were used as wicks to help light the way.  Some hand held oil lamps actually contain a feature called the festuca and its design permitted the wick to be trimmed.

White agapanthus is used to line the curb area in the garden.  Agapanthus carries the popular name “lily of the Nile” and helps to place the garden visitor in a time and place of Biblical importance.

Two types of Rosemary are in the garden.  In days past rosemary was always present at a wedding.  In medieval times rosemary was burned in a sanctuary to cleanse the altar.  Rosemary in the Torrey Pines Christian Church prayer garden provides color, scent and drought tolerance.  Behind the meditation benches taller growing rosemary bushes have been planted to provide contemplative privacy.  It is said that rosemary signifies love, friendship and remembrance and that the large bush would never grow taller than six feet and as such would not stand taller than Christ.

And, so it is.  The Torrey Pines Christian Church Prayer Garden has come to life.  It brings together horticultural and Biblical symbolism as well as a purposeful partnership for the Village Garden Club of La Jolla and its greater community.