Shopping for Your Garden

Gardeners are really very sage and knowledgeable people no matter their skill at the past time that they truly enjoy. It seems that life itself is in that warm soil heated by the rays of a brilliant sun and cooled by gentle breezes that relax, yet invigorate, calm yet bring new enthusiasm, and allow the gardener to reach new heights by stooping low and picking even pesky weeds and dead-heading blossoms.
When you head out to your garden area, it really does not matter the acres, yards, or even feet that is yours to maintain. In fact, it could be containers set on your patio, or a table facing the sun lined with pots of your favorite plants - this is your garden space and it is special indeed. While the place, size, and choice of plants is important to you, there are lessons to be learned and messages to be understood and taken to heart.
Gardens are not only stepping stones to life lessons, they are ladders that raise the playing field and allow inner beauty, sensitivity, and creativity to emerge and help bring about bountiful harvests and succulent food, one of life's necessities. Flowers allow you to take in the aroma of spring mornings, and summer delicacies. It is something as simple as taking a petal from a brilliant rose bloom and placing it in waxed paper and using it as a bookmark. This small gesture is thanks to the patch that adds so much charm and elegance to your day to day living, no matter the cir-cumstances or the voices on the evening news. A garden is your space to stop running and truly take the moment to smell the roses.
Some of the lessons that a garden will allow you to learn and experience is the ability to observe and not just look. You can stop and look at an emerald green pepper, or a magical ear of corn, but do you understand the forces that had to come about in order to produce this perfection of nature? Water could not do it alone, nor the sun. The roots that are hidden by the soil are not forgotten by the plant nor would the plant be there if it's past of seed, soil, and growth were not part of its history. Anyone can pass by and "see" the plants as they reach toward the morning sun, but a gardener cannot put aside the mysteries and the awe of what nature and man together can accomplish.
Understanding comes right along with trowel in hand and fingers that carefully pull the weeds but delicately press the soil around a stem. This understanding is that work is not drudgery and can, in its own right, be enjoyable and pleasurable. The gardener truly understands that learning is an on-going process and it never ends with the season. Plans are truly made in heaven and optimism convinces the flowers, herbs, fruits, and vegetables to give their all. With effort, a dry patch of dirt can be transformed into a living, breathing work of art. Barren is not an option but abundance and overflowing are words that come to life, with a gardener's cup always half full and reaching for more.
If you are gardening for the first time or for the tenth or twentieth season, each page of the calendar year brings new challenges, accomplishments, possibilities, and discoveries. As in life, nothing stays the same and if wind and rain tear down and destroy, the sun, man, and gentle care can cure and rearrange.
Something to think about
©Arleen M. Kaptur March, 2009