Lois de Vries' Garden Views

This is the second excerpt from a new book by America’s foremost creativity coach and my writing mentor, Dr. Eric Maisel . It’s called, Making Your Creative Mark. I’ve added editorial comments to the excerpt to help you see how you can use Eric’s suggestions to express more of your own creativity in the garden. ERIC: 4 . Complete projects for the sake of making progress. When you make new work that you think aims you in the direction of your genuine voice, try to complete that work rather than stopping midway because “it doesn’t look right” or “it isn’t working out.” You will make more progress if you push through those feelings, complete things, and only then appraise them. It is natural for work that is a stretch and new to you to provoke all sorts of uncomfortable feelings as you attempt it. Help yourself tolerate those feelings by reminding yourself that finishing is a key to progress. LOIS: Sooner or later , e very gardener finds him/herself in the mi...

I’m pleased to share with you an excerpt from a new book by America’s foremost creativity coach and my writing mentor, Dr. Eric Maisel . It’s called, Making Your Creative Mark. While Eric works primarily with authors and fine, craft, and performing artists, I’ve always found his approach to be directly applicable to my work with Cultivating The Inner Gardener. I’ve added editorial comments to the excerpt to help you see how you can use Eric’s suggestions to express more of your own creativity in the garden. Passion and Voice ERIC: A logical — and vital — relationship exists between passion and voice. It is very hard to be passionate about what you’re doing if you haven’t found your voice as an artist. Imagine being forced to sing an octave too high or an octave too low, straining to hit notes that you can’t really hit and that aren’t natural to you. It would be very hard to be passionate about singing in that situation. LOIS: Couldn’t you just feel t...

Gardeners can tick off a litany of potential reasons to get depressed: A copse of 60-year-old trees destroyed in an ice storm; house and garden vacuumed off the face of the earth by tornado; flooding by hurricane; seasonal drought; bee colony collapse disorder; whole forests decimated by alien insects; extensive flowerbeds destroyed by mold, fungi, or white-tailed deer; an entire season’s tomato harvest infected with blossom end-rot. Then there are the more personal reasons that interfere with our ability to garden: Arthritis, caring for infirm relatives; chronic disease; job loss; increased work demands; kid’s sports practice; volunteer commitments, etc. Any of these events can generate frustration, disappointment, and sadness -- justifiably so. But there’s no need to let ourselves slip from sadness into depression. Dr. Eric Maisel’s new book Rethinking Depression offers an arsenal of tools to cope with the ups and downs of daily life, so that we will have enough energy and enth...

GUEST BLOG: On April 21 st I will interview my writing coach, author Dr. Eric Maisel, about his book Rethinking Depression, which was recently released in paperback. It blows the lid off the need to label and medicate oneself as depressed just because life isn’t one continuous bed of roses. Gardening creatives can design a pathway that carries them through tough times by developing the deeper meaning that gardening holds for them. Rethinking Depression is available in paperback or Kindle.

Eighteenth-century gardener, poet, and acerbic critic Alexander Pope’s phrase “the genius of the place” is often quoted by garden writers, landscape architects, and environmental advocates to urge us to respect what Nature herself provides. But, it’s important to understand Pope’s phrase in context: The context of the times, the context of Pope’s rebellion against the excesses of the wealthy, and even within the context of the larger poem. Those who’d like to read the whole, Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle IV To Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington, can find an annotated version at Representative Poetry Online,  http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1632.html .   I’ve reproduced the 18 relevant lines here:             To build, to plant, whatever you intend,             To rear the column, or the arch to bend,          ...

Guest Blog The Gardener’s Psychiatric Hotline has been a perennial favorite for garden humor, which those of us in the Northeast could use a little of right now. Thanks to Ron Vanderhoff of Roger’s Gardens for his version: “Many who read this column will soon retreat to their gardens for long periods of time. Once there, may will find peace, harmony, and beauty. But a few, some of whom I’ve met, will discover other, darker, qualities of the season. At this season, I worry about many of my dear gardening friends. When talking to them, I see some of the early signs; the soft mumblings, the subtle mood swings, the small nervous tics. I suspect some of these garden comrades are only a dandelion or two away from serious floral psychosis. The annual anticipation of spring, mingled and juxtaposed with delirious expectations of plant perfection and the uncertainties of nature, drive some of my fragile friends to the brink. These people need skilled help, carefully administered ...

Families who have to cope with a nightly struggle over who won’t eat what vegetable might be interested in the Love Your Veggies™ Campaign ( LoveYourVeggies.com ). Readers may also want to check out Chef Art Smith’s (photo) commonthreads.org to read about getting children involved with vegetable gardening and healthy cooking. I’m sure kids are not the only ones falling short of the recommended 2-5 cups of daily fruit and vegetables, so treat yourself to one of Art’s tasty dishes: Moroccan Chicken with Roasted Vegetable Couscous Ingredients: 1 cup whole wheat couscous 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 medium onion, chopped 2 bay leaves 5 whole cloves, crushed ½ teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon dried, ground turmeric ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, chopped 1 16-oz. can garbanzo beans 1 16-oz. can crushed tomatoes 1 48-oz. can chicken broth 2 carrots cut into ½-inch pieces 1 zucchini cut into ½-inch pieces 1 pa...

Guest Blog Today I’m interviewing my writing coach Eric Maisel, about his book The Van Gogh Blues, which was recently released in paperback. Eric is a licensed psychologist who specializes in working with creative people. Gardening creatives, whether they are landscape professionals, garden writers, or just plain folks, occasionally suffer from the same self-doubts and blocks as other creatives: Are we up to the task? Are we about to make a big, expensive mistake? Why is this project stuck in neutral? Check out Eric’s advice on how you can protect the meaning gardening holds for you, regardless of what else is going on in your life. Lois: In Van Gogh Blues, you talk about the writer who faces the shock of the blank page and the novice painter who experiences the shock of a blank canvas. What advice would you give to a beginning gardener who is faced with the prospect of creating a garden on a bleak suburban lot in a new development? Eric: The answer sounds like a clich...

Just this week I had a great chat with Janine Vannais at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve about their Plant Stewardship Index for residents of New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. The PSI, is explained on their web site, http://www.bhwp.org/psi/index.html . An automated calculator assigns a numerical value to the various plants on your property (Garlic mustard = 0; Witch-hazel = 7) and computes indices that denote the overall health of your property in terms of the native plants it supports. Be prepared to spend some time entering your data. I chose to do it all at once, so it was somewhat laborious to enter my 54 species, but you can actually work over several sessions and revise the database as you go. The 3,500 listed plants can be found by common or scientific name, and there are photos that assist in identification. The program also notifies you if you have any rare or endangered plant species and provides a link to the appropriate state agency. Frankly, I am surprised th...

Guest Blog by Dan Freed People are always curious about Dan’s garden structures (left), so I’ve asked him to write about them. You can see more photos of the construction of the great Arts and Crafts rose arbor at http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=tsgykcv.u89lo8f&x=0&y=ec454e (The inspirational twig arbor shown there is from the garden of Inta Krombolz.) What is it about a door that takes you from one place to another? As you pass through, it promises the excitement of a new experience, a mystical quest of stepping into the unknown, making a new friend, or gaining a new perspective. Every garden deserves a proper door, creating a distinct transition from the crush of a relentless world. It’s a boundary, a magical opening that only I know exists. Here there is a freedom, a peace, a point of view, a unity with something quite extraordinary. It leads to a place where the sun shines, the rain falls, and there is an energy that I cannot begin to understand, but only feel...

Guest blog by Fred Gillespie Trees. For many individuals trees are usually viewed as things of beauty. Joyce Kilmer said as much in his poem, “Trees,” written in 1913 as part of a collection of his works published in 1914 under the title, “Trees And Other Poems.” We have since come to learn, however, that there are considerably more benefits that trees provide besides their aesthetic pleasure. For example, trees, whether alive, in stages of decay, or dead, provide nests, nesting materials, and protection from the elements for a wide range of bird and animal life. Many also serve as a food source. In addition, they also emit oxygen into the earth’s atmosphere, while their roots aid in maintaining the quality of the water in streams and rivers by limiting and/or preventing soil erosion. A single mature tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide during its lifetime. The Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) notes that construction sites may prod...