Serenity in the Garden

In these times, I look to one of my favorite Shakespare passages. They say being outside is one of the best things you can do to stay healthy. This is so apt for these times -  "Exempt from public haunt" indeed: "Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in every thing." - Shakespeare, As You Like It

During this time of  Covid-19,  we must cultivate outselves, our well being and our gardens. Plants can be a soothing balm for troubled times.  This is modified from the National Garden Bureau - click on the words for some great and informative links.  Start  some seeds . Plan a  vegetable garden .   Plan to grow flowers for the joy they bring. Take an  online class  about plants or gardens, or watch some  YouTube instruction videos .   Plan an  herb garden.     T ake a walk in a nearby natural area:  woods, field, desert, beach or park.  Take this time to groom or repot houseplants.  Remove dead leaves, refresh the soil, take cuttings of favorites so that later you can share the wealth with friends. Create a new indoor display of plants.  Make a row of small pots in bloom on your kitchen counter or the windowsill above your sink.  Plan a new  group of cont...

  Gardening With Soul    won  Best Documentary Award at the New Zealand Film Festival. It is an inspiring story about an elderly  nun,  Sister Loyola,  who tends her cloister’s gardens with a marked passion for her task.  The opening starts with a storm and shows her inventive protective makeshift “covers” (old milk jugs) that saves the tender plants. Cane in hand, Sister Loyola walks to the church’s on-site shed and surveying the scene says, “I spend a lot of time out here.” Sister Loyola opines, "The garden is saying to me all the time, ‘life is evolving, life is evolving’—So if you’re going to spend the last few years of your life worrying about how to survive, you’re wasting your time”.  Gardening With Soul  is available for  fundraiser screenings for community gardening groups, churches, and other organizations across the United States. More info can be found  here .

In less than a month - on March 28 -  Earth Hour will take place around the world.  Earth Hour started in 2007 as a lights-off event to raise awareness about the imperiled earth. It has grown to engage more than 162 countries and territories worldwide.  Earth Hour is on Saturday, 28 March 2015 at 8:30 pm local time. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is the parent organization of Earth Hour. At the core of any Earth Hour celebration is switching off or turning down the lights.  Organize an event around the act of switching off or dimming down the lights. "Cocktails by Candlelight" or entirely turning off any exterior signage.  Some towns have used Earth Hour as the kickoff for an entire week or month of Earth-inspired activities that include the celebration of Earth Day. Its a small step but it is the right step toward  environmental  global consciousness...watch this short official Earth Hour video:

Dahlia 'Smartie' " The earth laughs in flowers..." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson If Emerson was right, then the earth in my part of the world, the northeast United States, is guffawing right now. Big belly laughs of coneflower, Shasta daisy, dahlias and more. scaveola, mini petunias, lantana photo by Jan Johnsen Chuckling up lantana, giggling petunias.....how could you not smile? Flowers make us happy — but why? flowers make us happy! Well, a fascinating study in the journal of   Evolutionary Psychology – ISSN 1474-7049 – Volume 3. 2005. - 121  reported on this phenomenon. Psychological researchers from Rutgers University wrote,  " An Environmental Approach to Positive Emotion: Flowers" Pool Design and Flower garden by Jan Johnsen Some of their findings include (I chose the following excerpts from their study):  "our results indicate that the simple presentation of flowers, even a single flower , will...

photo by Jan Johnsen  This post got many thumbs up on Google + this year: Are you feeling a little down? depressed? Well here is a way to fix that -  go out and plant something... Studies have found that an hour of gardening a day reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke and increases bone density more efficiently than aerobics or swimming! In fact, even looking at nature can result in a drop in blood pressure within five minutes and lower our stress hormones. One 16-year study in Australia revealed that those who did daily gardening even cut their risk of getting dementia in later life.    (Gardening boosts endorphins, the body’s good-mood chemicals. Personally, my theory is that we need the sunlight on our pineal gland and this can delay dementia, but I have no proof, its just a 'knowing') Here is a lovely story from  Timesonline United Kingdom,  dated March 27, 2010 "...Jane Robertson was earning a small fortu...

Do you feel a pang of guilt when you are asked to go out but you would rather stay home and read, garden, draw, quilt or simply drink a cup of tea?  You are not alone. You are an introvert - given to pondering, creating and being. Many gardeners and garden lovers are, at heart, introverts.  In 'Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking' Susan Cain looks at where we fall on the introvert-extrovert spectrum...She explores how “closeted introverts” like Gandhi , Abraham Lincoln , Steve Jobs , Bill Gates have expended enormous energy on trying to pass as extroverts in a culture that rewards extroversion. Wow - I can relate! Most garden lovers, I think, are, by their nature, introverts. We adjust and work hard to pass as extroverts but deep down, we just like to create and putter and appreciate music, art, plants, and more. We work hard to meet the extrovert standard but, truly, we just want to be alone.  Cain...

There is no more fitting to place to honor and remember those that were lost than in a garden.... it reminds us that  life goes on, in all Nature's wondrous  forms... I Heard an Angel by William Blake I heard an Angel singing When the day was springing, "Mercy, Pity, Peace Is the world's release. "     Eleven years ago I suggested to my village, Croton on Hudson, NY, that we plant daffodils to commemorate those who perished on September 11, 2001.  And so every year the people of Croton of all ages come out and plant daffodils in public areas .    Daffodil Planting Village of Croton-on-Hudson The Croton Conservation Advisory Council invites you to join  the 11th annual Daffodil planting  on October 13, 2012   at DUCK POND, Croton.. 9am to 12 pm. Rain or shine

The Latin word for ‘cultivate’, colere, means both ‘to till’ and ‘to cherish’ . How appropriate! ‘Tilling’ your garden helps you to cherish Nature and become more 'watchful' of nature's processes. Going out before the heat of the day in summer you can see Nature’s serendipitous ‘co-incidents’ close at hand. The fragrant, multihued display of flowers is not meant to delight us but to catch an insect’s eye - this is a glorious way to ensure pollination of each blossom and hybrid seed production.      Indeed,  the symphony of the natural world is a medley of synchronous events working together, ever changing throughout the “striped coat of climates, this fourfold year…” that Ralph Waldo Emerson termed it. Cultivating our observation of Nature leads to serene acceptance.   For example, in spring, you may see the fluffy white seedpods of the Cottonwood trees on everything, making a 'mess'. But this ‘cottony’ mass  that covers ever...

photo from this blog (click here) It is a rainy spring where I live. Rain and more rain. Days of rain with intermittent breaks of sun. So when life gives you raindrops.... You make... Mud Pies. Learn to love the mud and you will be a happier person, I assure you.... My stepmother once chided me for playing in the dirt and mud, saying this wasn't proper for a young lady (I was 11)... She didn't understand that this was ( and is) my greatest joy.  Perhaps I should have showed her one of my favorite poems. It is called 'In Just' by e e cummings.    Annual Mud Day Celebration in Westland, Michigan a poem in praise of spring, mud, childhood and more by e e cummings:   in just- in Just- spring       when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloonman whistles     far      and wee and eddieandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it's spring when the wo...