Since childhood, I have always deeply loved the natural world and recall when I could first walk, thinking that blue butterflies were from a magical fairy realm. The knowledge that they are one of millions of insect species on Earth does not reduce my joy in being able to see them, especially if I have just planted a pollinator in someone’s garden. I’m a professional gardener with a small business and will take every opportunity to encourage wildlife with a client’s permission! There is healing and learning on many levels in spending time in nature, with inspiration that trails over into other areas of your life.
“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.” – Alfred Austin
This is a saying that every gardener will say in slightly different words each time! When you get lost outside, working on your green space it can have proven health benefits with a calorie burn similar to a game of badminton or yoga. Of course, this does not include sitting on the bench and admiring your efforts in bloom. Gardening also is proven to reduce depression, anxiety and cognitive decline as well as improve social bonds when done with family or in a community garden.
“You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt.” – author unknown
Replanting our mindset
“There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.” – popular Swedish saying
It’s safe to say that winter gloom is a real thing, and we all feel joy with the first signs of spring and a return of warmer sunshine. But there is beauty in the natural world all year round with the right mindset and a positive attitude. If it’s cold, grey and rainy you soon warm up if you wear the right coat and keep moving – the air is just not the same indoors.
“There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.” – Janet Kilburn Phillips
Not everyone enjoys gardening, and many are put off by the perception of themselves as not being green-fingered – a skill which often comes down to experience, time and opportunities during childhood. With so many free online resources it is easier than ever to start at any age, even if just a few inexpensive houseplants which you can keep an eye on without the need for your own garden space. Like with learning any new skill, your ability can rapidly grow with a little persistence mixed with the satisfaction from often surprising results.
“If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.” – Jack Cole
Being a gardener means learning how to care for and appreciate the little things in nature. This involves a sense of pride in your work as well as respect for the space around you – an approach you can carry into other areas of life, the environment and interpersonal relationships. Our species is more fragile than we often like to think but we have a greater chance of survival if we learn to work with nature and not try to be its master. It is often said that we should never underestimate the power of nature.
“The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway.” – Michael Pollan (2007) ‘Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education’
Gardening over the generations
“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
With hectic modern lives, we often are so focused on trying to deal with future events that we are not truly living in the moment and able to act with a sense of purposeful peace. In procrastinating and rushing it is easy to have short-term tunnel vision; not paying attention to the small acts that we may not personally benefit from. Regardless of our spiritual beliefs, most people recognise that we can live on through our children or society in terms of what we teach them, and how we inspire. From small random acts of kindness to planting great oaks, others will benefit from good deeds in the future and that should be enough.
“There is little satisfaction in bathing a clean child at the end of the day.”
This made me laugh when my Edinburgh neighbour, Grainne, explained her love of getting her children out in the garden for hours on end. For me, it sums up a great challenge to a rather prevalent notion that shoes should not be muddy, paint is too risky to have at home around little ones and children are in general more interested in screens. Both my now adult children help me with jobs when they are free, and we still get very muddy. Floors can be hoovered (eventually) but you can’t sanitise childhood without washing away some fantastic natural experiences.
“Never put off planting something or you will find that ten years later you are saying ‘If only we had planted that wisteria,’ and you are filled with sad thoughts. It isn’t too late. Do it now, and if you don’t live to enjoy it, somebody else will.” – A.A. Milne
We also shouldn’t shy too much from allowing children to use ‘proper’ tools if they are safe. Boys and girls can equally get good at gardening or DIY if they have been allowed to hold a big spade, for example (even if not doing much that is productive). They love to get involved alongside you in some way and experience the satisfaction that you do as an adult, to be helping fix something or grow a garden.
So that leaves me with my personal motto which usually gets a bemused smile,
“A girl can’t have too many spades.”
