The Gardeners Glove

Garden Solitude is for anyone who feels that there life is anything but normal. I recommend to anyone that by starting a garden one will experience a form of solitude. Garden Solitude is a good reason why people who are busy in their everyday lifestyles should be the first to start a garden of their own. The most significant garden I can recall was during physical and emotional pain with much stress in my life. I didn't start out planning a garden or even a vision on how the garden would look, but soon my vision began.

 

I looked at a very ugly area in my yard and decided to do something with it (that's called change). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to plant a garden. It's all about trial and error anyway. A garden is a reflection of one self. It holds a remarkable release of your personality, slowly starting and then growing - much as we all do in life. Most people view a garden as so much work, that they don't even get one started. Like life, it’s how much you put into something in order to reap what you get out of something. My little spot for a garden was to only have things that I would enjoy like a few vegetables, some herbs and colorful flowers. For me the hardest part of any of this was the waiting, as I have little patience. You will be gratified by all the waiting, there really isn't anything quite like achieving a miracle that you started with just two hands, a thought, a tiny seed and Mother's earth before you. Whatever the idea, the thought you have in starting a garden (remember it is only what you make of it) whether thinking you have to or that it could be a waste of your time. A garden is a gift and should be enriched by your loving hands; therefore any other form would be futile.

 

Special Gardens:

A flower box filled with a variety of colorful flowers is one part of a garden all your own, you still have to plant it, water it and watch the flowers bloom before you can see the beauty in it all. Maybe a secret garden, like the one you had as a child. A potting shed filled with wonderful starters to mature plants of all designs. The indoor kitchen window herb garden, wonderful fragrances to fill your home.  A vegetable garden that harvests the prize winning ribbons at the local state fair. Variety is the spice of life:

 

In my tiny garden, I placed several herbs, rows of vegetables. In between the rows I left a good space for growing separation. We like flowers and garden vegetables all need times for special separation. In front of my rows of seeds I planted soft soothing colors of flowers to separate the plants. Think of this as the seasons and with the changing of the seasons, so then comes the color changes in your garden. Start with spring and fill the soil with daffodils. Go into summer with roses, Iris and other bright colors. Then onto fall with brilliant orange and yellow mums. Finish with winter by placing the evergreens, shrubs, to small trees that bear red berries. Place each plant in a harmony to the artist's soul. After each seed is in its resting row, I carefully placed the mounds of rich dark soil over each seed and pat the rows, almost as a release of my care for each new plant I was starting. I add white ceramic angels to my garden. The angels are there to watch over my garden. Now, I step back and view what once was an ugly area has begun to take on a different look. I see promise in the area that once was so empty. Each morning I go to my mini garden and tend to its care. Carefully sprinkling water over each row and pulling out any weeds that may show. Again, I have to wait. Waiting time is funny in that: one must wait for all good things to be shown. All the pressures I have in my mind are for a moment gone. This is a time when I take pause to my life. I have watched something wonderful grow and bloom. Taking a moment to in-vision that what I so carefully planted, watered and patted with care one day surprised me and that is the best reward. It's called faith in knowing things change just like the Season's and one will grow and bloom with care and tenderness.

 

The day arrives: It's a joyous feeling to awake with a wonder if today is the day that my garden starts a new life. I stand over my garden and look at the tiny sprouts that have broken through the soil as they eagerly reach towards the sun’s rays. They look so small, yet are strong enough to move the heavy load once holding them back, so they may spread to the unknown. My heart is calm, a smile begins to evoke from my face, and the best surprise has come in the arrival of each row has begun to grow. The pleasure comes in enjoying its harvest with added moments from others admiring what once was an ugly area is now blooming with beauty. I surround the area with other peaceful objects: A bird bath for the morning birds that I so have loved watching over the years; a waterfall fountain so that I may hear the splashing of water over rocks.

 

Path off Happiness:

Now you have it, and you never thought growing a garden was possible. Now you have a quiet spot to meditate. Each time I visit the garden, pull a sprig of peppermint to add to my fresh glass of brewed tea. I can thank my garden for giving the sprig to me. Each time I taste the magnificent flavor of a fresh carrot or currant leaf in a tossed salad, I give thanks to my garden. When I smell the aroma of a fresh cut Iris (surrounded by daisies, mums, lilies and other colorful flowers) I have grown, I give thanks once again. I find my solitude in the simplest of tasks, it just takes a thought and/or an idea; and before I knew it, the garden blossomed into something lovely for me. Walking with faith is to know hope.