Gardening is Connection. I see so many new and novice gardeners approach the garden with the desire to control and the expectation of a certain outcome. I see new gardeners watering and tending the garden quickly, impatiently, unconsciously… This approach surely leads to disappointment and frustration when it comes harvest time, but most importantly, this causes a gardener to miss out on what’s important and GOOD about gardening.
Gardening is patient, fruitful, enjoyable, and peaceful. Gardening is Connection.
Trust that plants want to grow and they desire to work with you and connect with you as well. This may sound a bit crazy at first, but there is a life-force in plants (and in all living things) that is reaching out for your connected care and attention. True gardening is a nurturing and appreciation of this connection.
Know that YOU, the gardener, are a key element in the cycle of life in the garden.
The garden needs you to provide consistent water, protection from pests and animals, and to nurture the soil by adding in organic matter like leaves, manure, and compost. The garden needs you to connect with it authentically and from your heart space, to slow down, to appreciate.
A true gardener synergizes with the garden, not conquers it. She humbly learns from the garden, not tries to teach it.
The Intuitive Gardener
In this blog, I offer three exercises from my Intuitive Gardeners Handbook, which can be downloaded from my website.
I created this handbook to help new gardeners bridge and nurture that special connection to nature that is key to cultivating a successful garden. Opening up and nurturing this connection helps make gardening more natural and intuitive to someone who hasn’t had much experience in this realm.
If you’re interested in gaining more ground in gardening, try these exercises out to connect to nature, you might be surprised at how they make you feel, and how they can guide you to greater success in the garden.
Exercise #1: Breath Work
Exercise #1: Breath work. Breathe in and out deeply while observing a plant visually. Observe your awareness as you pay attention to that plant. What feeling do you experience when you observe only your breath and the plant? Where in your body do you feel it? Visualize breathing in and out with that plant. Notice what happens when you take your attention away from the plant and onto another inanimate object.
Exercise #2: Appreciation
Exercise #2: Appreciation. Visually connect with any plant or tree in your area. Feel the emotion of appreciation from your heart center as you maintain a visual connection for 15 seconds. Scan all parts of the plant and feel this appreciation.
Exercise #3: Gratitude
Exercise #3: Gratitude. Identify a vegetable, grain, or fruit on your plate at each meal. Connect with this plant as it still contains the vitality and life-force that gives you energy when you consume and digest it. Before you eat, feel gratitude for this plant and for all stages it has been through to get to your plate; sprouting, growing in the sun, undergoing any spraying, harvesting, shipping. Feel gratitude also for all hands that have touched this plant to get it to your plate.
Gardening is Connection…
As a gardener, we change our mindset, we open up our hearts to align with the curiosities of the natural world, we ground into the life-force that is held in soil, plants, and water. If you’ve never dabbled much in connecting to nature in this way, or have viewed food as an inanimate object, it’s time to change that now. If you seek to grow food, you must create an authentic connection with it. Food is alive, food is nature, food is life-force. And gardening is connection.
I’d love to hear what you think about these exercises in the comments section! Remember, you can download the entire handbook for FREE at the top of any page on my website.
If you’re interested in rooting down in the history of the home garden, check out my YouTube video Urban Gardens: Then and Now!
In Growing,
Andrea
