When I’m visiting a garden or site for the first time, I often find my mind wandering and drawing a picture of what the garden needs to be for the people who will live in it. As you tell me about the memories of your favourite tree as a child, I’ve seen where it needs to be planted, with a spot underneath for the comfiest perching spot possible and some planting around that keeps painting that peaceful picture for you. The place in your garden for that nurturing experience is a quiet spot, away from the main thoroughfares, somewhere nestled and not exposed. When all of this comes together and is established, what you should feel in that place is peaceful, quiet, nurturing energy. Before we created that place, it may have been a place that you felt a different energy in – perhaps it felt raw, barren, dry and just plain uninspiring.
In creating a garden that inspires its owners to spend more time there, I look for many different experiences to be included for adults, children and the animals. Part of that might be somewhere to cook undercover and share a meal, but that is only one aspect. the rest of the garden is where the potential for real peace comes. Cast your mind back to rolling down grassy hills as a child and giggling the whole way. Can you imagine how much fun it can still be as an adult? Simple fun like that brings such a light joyful energy within you. Did you have a treehouse? My heart leaps at the thought of having a treehouse at the end of a magical mossy forested walk with a little stream running through it. I’d climb that ladder into the treetops and you wouldn’t get me out of there for weeks. What about laying in a lawn hollow and looking up into the canopy of a group of Gingko trees all turning golden yellow at once? does that give you hope?
Gardens like this are much cheaper to construct than those with lots of paving, walls and expanses of ‘low maintenance’ solutions. We wouldn’t accept the under use of a space like that in our homes so why settle for something totally uninspiring in your garden? You aren’t all great gardeners to begin with but I haven’t lost anyone to ‘black thumbs’ yet. It’s all about soil preparation, the right selection of plants for the site, education, sometimes coaching for a year or two, but most of all it’s about connecting you to the right garden for you. When you want to be out there in your garden, it’s not such a chore to yank a few weeds while it gets established. Being in the right garden is a good start to shutting your mind off from work too.
Let’s allow ourselves to visit childhood and all the imaginative creativity that brings. See how you change..
