Mindfulness Garden Games
by Joann Calabrese
author of Growing Mindful

Borage for Courage & Joy

borage for courage

Happy Full Moon – April 6, 2023 Inviting Borage into Your Garden As you gather seeds for spring planting, consider adding borage (Borago officinalis) to the list. Borage is a hardy annual with vibrant star-shaped flowers, usually of blue and lavender (but there is a rare white variety). It is a wonderful companion plant, repelling … Read more

New Moon & Equinox Energy

Happy New Moon, March 21, 2023 Weaving Together the Energy of Spring Equinox & New Moon This day holds an abundance of new moon & equinox energy. The new moon occurs today, March 21st, and the vernal equinox took place yesterday, March 20th.  Each of these events hold powerful imagery and energy that we can … Read more

Gift of Flax

Gift of Flax

Happy Full Moon – March 7, 2023 An Origin Story There is an old Norse tale of a farmer who was given the gift of flax by the goddess Holda. While chasing after his sheep, he discovered a secret doorway into a glacier. And upon entering the doorway, the farmer discovered a cave filled with dazzling … Read more

World View, Alphabets, & Gardens

Lavender World View

Happy New Moon – February 20, 2023 Creating Order Judith Flander’s book, A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order ,is a fascinating read touching on world views and our human need to categorize things. It’s a history of the alphabet, as well as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and the birth of alphabetical order. Until … Read more

Amaranth & Grace

Happy Full Moon – February 5, 2023 I’ve been thinking a lot about amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) because I am packing up a multitude of seeds for friends, harvested from last year’s garden. The tiny amaranth seeds are hard to separate from the reddish bits of petals that still cling to them. And to some extent … Read more

Advice from Luna

Blessings at the New Moon – January 21 – 2023 A lion on the Serengeti  My dog Luna is an expert at finding places near the edges of the garden where she can merge with the background and camouflage herself. I have found her nestled in the sunchokes, hidden behind grape vines and in the … Read more

Raspberry Plants & New Creations

Blessings on the first Full Moon of the Year – January 6 2023 New Creations Raspberry plants have a strong resonance with birthing, and not just of babies. Birthing includes the idea of something coming into being that did not exist before. It could be a garden, a creative project, a new habit, or a … Read more

New Moon Mindfulness

Happy New Moon – December 23, 2022 It’s the December new moon – and this particular one arrives just two days after winter solstice .These events share many of the same energetic qualities. They both are times of darkness, but also are turn around points for increasing light. Winter solstice is the annual point, but … Read more

Mindful Prompts for Winter Solstice

The Sun Returns  Winter Solstice happens at 2:47 Mountain Time on Wednesday, December 21, 2022.  That’s the moment the earth’s northern hemisphere stops tilting away from the sun and begins to tilt back as it continues its journey around our fiery star. Solstice is about light and warmth returning. It is a time to tune … Read more

Yarrow & the Essence of Healing

Full Moon Greetings – December 6, 2022 Yarrow in the Garden Achillea millefolium, or yarrow, is a beautiful wildflower and easy to grow healing plant. The leaves are feathery, soft, and fernlike and flower heads are made of clusters of many tiny flowers. In the wild, yarrow is usually shades of white or pink, but there are … Read more