7 Secrets to Creating The Garden of Your Dreams Secret #6: Believe Your Gardening Efforts Matter
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| Connect with Nature from inside the house as well as from outside of it! |
Every gardener fails at something
It goes with the territory. Even the best of us have plants beset by insects, fungi, bacteria and other pests that are difficult to control and can wipe out an entire growing season’s work. Then there is the weather – early snows, late ice storms, drought, floods, etc., all take a toll. Gardeners learn that they have to be flexible and roll with the punches.
That ability is also important when others, particularly loved ones, don’t share our opinion about the importance of gardening in the big picture of national or global upheaval. And if you can’t show perfect results in a hurry, some folks may be inclined to suggest that you aren’t very good at gardening.
Are you intimidated by the gardens you see in books and magazines? Do you feel that, if your garden doesn’t measure up to some ideal, it isn’t worth having? Do you feel pressured to do what’s trendy at the moment, such as growing your own vegetables, when what you really want is to replicate the perfect English garden, or create habitat for birds and small mammals?
Make your own meaning
All of these scenarios have one thing in common: They allow circumstances outside ourselves to spoil the pleasure we derive from gardening. The meaning or importance we ascribe to gardening comes from inside ourselves, and that requires us to reassert that meaning day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and minute-by-minute. Otherwise, we can lose track of it in the harsh glare of criticism, whether it comes from someone else or from ourselves.
Hold on tight to your dream of making your little corner of the world a more beautiful place and reconnecting with Mother Nature.
For more on this topic, go to http://cultivatingtheinnergardener.blogspot.com .
The topic of the August 2011 Cultivating The Inner Gardener e-newsletter: What's Distorting Your Vision? To sign up, enter your e-mail in the Yahoo Groups box in the right-hand column.
It goes with the territory. Even the best of us have plants beset by insects, fungi, bacteria and other pests that are difficult to control and can wipe out an entire growing season’s work. Then there is the weather – early snows, late ice storms, drought, floods, etc., all take a toll. Gardeners learn that they have to be flexible and roll with the punches.
That ability is also important when others, particularly loved ones, don’t share our opinion about the importance of gardening in the big picture of national or global upheaval. And if you can’t show perfect results in a hurry, some folks may be inclined to suggest that you aren’t very good at gardening.
Are you intimidated by the gardens you see in books and magazines? Do you feel that, if your garden doesn’t measure up to some ideal, it isn’t worth having? Do you feel pressured to do what’s trendy at the moment, such as growing your own vegetables, when what you really want is to replicate the perfect English garden, or create habitat for birds and small mammals?
Make your own meaning
All of these scenarios have one thing in common: They allow circumstances outside ourselves to spoil the pleasure we derive from gardening. The meaning or importance we ascribe to gardening comes from inside ourselves, and that requires us to reassert that meaning day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and minute-by-minute. Otherwise, we can lose track of it in the harsh glare of criticism, whether it comes from someone else or from ourselves.
Hold on tight to your dream of making your little corner of the world a more beautiful place and reconnecting with Mother Nature.
For more on this topic, go to http://cultivatingtheinnergardener.blogspot.com .
The topic of the August 2011 Cultivating The Inner Gardener e-newsletter: What's Distorting Your Vision? To sign up, enter your e-mail in the Yahoo Groups box in the right-hand column.
