Mindful Garden Intentions for 2021
- Embrace Wholeness. If you are a gardener you already know a garden is much more than the visible plants. Soil, pollinators, fungi, micro-organisms, the elements, and green plants are an interconnected web. Find ways to hold that connectedness in your awareness throughout the day.
- Share the Joy. Introduce someone to gardening. Give them a wildflower seed packet with a pot and soil. Help a new gardener by providing cuttings or seeds. For inspiration, buy them a copy of Botany of Desire, Paradise Lot: Two Plant Geeks, One Tenth of an Acre, and the Making of an Oasis in the City, or Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants. If you have children in your life, invite them to help in the garden. Give them their own small plot and help them pick out something fun and easy to grow.
- Cultivate Mindfulness. Be present – even with mundane gardening tasks like weeding. Actually the mundane tasks provide a perfect opportunity for practicing mindfulness. When weeding, just weed. And when harvesting, just harvest.
- Expand Your Knowledge. Read a book on botany or seed saving. Find a new use for a plant – a craft or a recipe. Check out Maude Grieve’s a Modern Herbal (published in 1931) for fascinating histories and uses of plants. Or do an online search of the history of your favorite plants. Appreciate how plants have interacted with humans over the millennia. Last year I learned that the conquistadors tried to eradicate amaranth because it was sacred to the Aztecs. Lucky for us they failed. What can you discover this year?
Amaranth - Experiment. Grow at least one new plant. Visit a garden center or peruse the seed catalogs and find something that intrigues you or something you’ve always wanted to plant but haven’t. This year I am planting woad, an herb that creates a blue dye. It’s been on my to do list forever and I’ve just ordered the seeds. Now that I am successfully growing fibers I want to include dyes in the garden.
- Be Adventurous and Creative. Shake things up. But with intention. Survey your available space with fresh eyes and be open to new possibilities. Make use of vertical space and patios. Plant vegetables in with the flowers and pumpkins in the front yard.
- Give back to the garden. Plant cover crops and use mulch, both help keep the soil healthy. Feed and nurture the soil by making compost. This of course also reduces waste and helps the whole planet.
- Give back to the world. On a regular basis, surprise someone with a garden gift – a bouquet, a salad you harvested and mixed, a pressed flower card you created. If possible, share some of your bounty with a local food bank.
- Be grateful. The world of plants makes it possible for us to be alive on the planet. Find ways to remind yourself of this fact. Saying grace – expressing gratitude for the green world before each meal – is an easy entry into mindfulness practice, one we can engage in multiple times a day. Be thankful for the connectedness of humans and plants. Return to #1 and embrace the wholeness.
Happy New Year! Wishing everyone a 2021 of good health, peace, joy, and lots of gardening.
Just a reminder that my book, Growing Mindful, Explorations in the Garden to Deepen Your Awareness will be available on January 8th. Please ask your library or local bookseller to carry it. I am giving away four signed copies through Goodreads. Sign up now through January 28th.
