Serenity in the Garden

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 fortune in the pressured world of derivatives markets when she had a breakdown at the age ...

In honor of my new book, The Spirit of Stone - 101 Practical and Creative Stonescaping Ideas for Your Garden  (St. Lynn's Press, 2017) that was released last week I am sharing this post about stone benches. Stone Bench - Dallas Arboretum - photo by Jan Johnsen Stone Bench by  Johnsen Landscapes & Pools In the heat of the summer when we should be pruning what we really want to do is sit in the cool shade and drink a tall glass of iced tea. Antique sandstone Bench from  English Garden Antiques Ah, a place to sit in the cool leafy shade!  What better contrast to the soft green lushness that surrounds you than a stone seat or bench, immutable, grounded and cool to the touch... sitting on stone outdoors grounds you and aligns you to the earth's electromagnetic pulse... It is like a calming sedative that you feel almost immediately. See some great stone benches at the  Stonepost  website Stone seats...

Never lose hope, my dear heart... miracles dwell in the invisible. - Rumi

Om symbol in garden - Jan Johnsen We need to balance the pace and intensity of modern life  with periods of what poet May Sarton  has called " open time , with no obligations except toward the inner world  and what is going on there." ~ Thomas Moore So how to touch the inner world in a garden ?.. I suggest chanting 'OM.' (really it is 'AUM'), long and sustained, several times... “Om” is the oldest and most widely known one-syllable mantra or chant.    It is said very, very slowly. Mantras are believed to contain a vibrational power that can lift us to higher states. Scientists recently discovered that rhythmic recitations of a mantra can slow breathing and regulate heart rhythms, this in turn oxygenates the blood, lowers blood pressure and induces a feeling of calmness and well-being. The Sanskrit symbol above represents “OM”. It does not say '30' as some might assume.     The Om symbol (in photo a...

Otisville Correctional Facility - where I taught but it was not this nice looking back then In the 1970s, I was a part of a team that taught a one year intensive certificate program on Landscape Development and Maintenance at a community college near New Paltz, NY. I was a young instructor but was very earnest and devoted to teaching. Then one day the president of the college called me in and told me that I, alone, would be teaching all my courses at a men's correctional facility 44 miles away.  What??!! all my classes? away from the campus? in a prison? After much protesting, I was sent 'away' to teach the entire program at a men's prison. Well, as often happens, it was one of the best experiences in my life. I taught full time there for 2 years and still cherish the memories. Otisville Correctional Facility classroom  - but not my specific class I have a lot of fun stories. We installed walks, plant beds and even a solar greenhouse (it was donate...

Rock Art by Thomas D Kent, Jr This is funny.   Glenn Eichler wrote an open letter to the New York Botanical Garden in 2014 in the New Yorker regarding his love of their rock garden. He felt it deserved more attention:  "...rocks—dragged by glaciers, striped and striated by, I guess, also glaciers—deserve better.  Not sexy? Compared to what, the Donald J. Bruckmann Crabapple Collection?  No disrespect to Mr. Bruckmann, but Mick Jagger and Keith Richards haven’t spent fifty years playing to sold-out crowds as the Rolling Crabapples, the world’s greatest crabapple-and-roll band." Glenn has a point, don't you think? Mick Jagger in garden

Tony Avent runs the wonderful  Plant Delights Nursery  - offering a diverse collection of plants and the catalog is a collectors' item On April 29, 2010 Anne Raver of the New York Times asked:  "How does  Tony Avent , the horticultural mythbuster, grow so many plants successfully in his garden? Rule No. 1: he uses the same mix of 40 percent native soil, dug on his own land, and 60 percent compost for every plant. ''The soil for every plant we have is prepared exactly the same, whether it's a pitcher plant or an agave,'' .... After he switched to organics, he said, ''it took about a year before everything started jumping. Our insect problems disappeared. It was just amazing.'' ...." This observation took me back to 1972 when I was a landscape architecture student at the University of Hawaii and minoring in tropical agriculture The university farm was in Pearl City ( next to Pearl Harbor) and it was divided int...

It's all about magical thinking....

Photo by Corbyrobert - Garden of the Gods     Have you heard of  'Solastalgia' ? A big word for a simple idea. Nikki Taylor sculpture  Solastalgia is "A pain or discomfort caused by the present state of one’s home environment".    It is an emotional suffering felt by different people in different locations as the degradation of the environment continues. It affects indigenous people and urban / industrial denizens alike. “Solastalgia” has been used to describe the experiences of Inuit communities coping with the effects of rising temperatures, refugees from Katrina, Bangladeshi farmers in a drought stricken land.      Solastalgia is also what we feel when we become disconnected from our natural environment..... In 2010 The New York Times published a great article on the term term by Daniel B. Smith (he holds the Critchlow Chair in English at the College of New Rochelle).  I took ...