When anyone speaks of my great-grandmother, one of the things that inevitably comes up is her garden. Grandma BoSanco was known for her gardening capabilities. No matter what it was—flowers or vegetables—she could grow anything. She spent hours in her garden everyday. It was always beautiful and free from weeds. She also grew the best tomatoes. There was nothing like eating a warm, freshly picked and sliced tomato from her garden sprinkled with a little salt.

Another thing that comes to mind when I think of my grandma was her faith in Jesus Christ. She had strong belief in Him. I remember seeing her read from her Bible. I remember her telling me stories about Jesus.

I wonder if gardening helped her feel closer to Him; after all, He was a gardener too.

After He finished the work of the creation, one of the first things God did was plant a garden (see Genesis 2:8-9). Jesus was the original (the “OG”) gardener.¹

Eve and Adam would eventually fall from that first garden, the Garden of Eden, bringing to the world physical and spiritual death.

But the Gardener was not finished.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus would take upon himself the sins, pain, and sufferings of all mankind, thus conquering spiritual death.

And only a few days later, Christ would break the bands of death (see Mosiah 15:8), at the Garden of the Empty Tomb.²

Jeffrey R. Holland said, “On that first Resurrection Sunday, Mary Magdalene first thought she saw a gardener. Well, she did—the Gardener who cultivated Eden and who endured Gethsemane. The Gardener who gave us the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, the cedars of Lebanon, the tree of life.”³

Grandma BoSanco often comes to my mind on Easter, but it’s no wonder, really, given her love of Him and her love of gardening, as well as the hope that the season brings.

I wish my children could have known her.

Someday, somwhere, probably in a heavenly garden, my kids will get to meet her. I am grateful for that Great Gardener who makes it possible for me to see her again.

Grandma was still growing and tending a garden when she died. In fact, on a pleasant summer morning more than twenty years ago, she suddenly passed away as she was walking back to her house from her garden.

She had a ripe tomato in one hand and three weeds in the other.

Gardening to the very end.

Yeah . . . I really want my kids to know her.

So until that day when they can sit with her, what will I tell them when they ask about her?

I’ll tell them she was a gardener.

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1. Hugh B. Brown gave the commencement address at BYU garduation in 1968. His address was entitled “God Is the Gardener“. The story of the currant bush in this address has become a classic.
2. A powerful read is the last testimony of Bruce R. McConkie in “The Purifying Power of Gethsemane” from General Conference, April 1985.
3. Jeffrey R. Holland, “Missionary Work and the Atonement“, Ensign, March 2001