Mindful Gardening Newsletter 13

It has been a fabulous week here in Cordressagagh sun wise.  This was great because we had visitors from the UK staying and the first week was rain and more rain.  Some friends in the U.S.A are telling me that their garden is covered in snow as is a friend’s garden in Denmark.

The various garden rooms (not rooms in a literal sense) are beginning to explode into color.  As I write this, I have insisted that Bee sit in the St. Bridget’s Garden rather than engage in housework and enjoy the sun in what is essentially her garden.  So, she is off to sit and have cereal on the seat gifted to us by friend Joanne.

A Photographic Gift

This week I was gifted a small camera from a long-time dear friend Micheal McCann.  I have purchased a memory card and I have slung the small camera around my neck.  This allows me to take a photo of an aspect of the garden in a fairly spontaneous way.  Most of the images that have graced this Newsletter to date have come from the Canva website. 

My next task is to learn how to download these images of the garden in Cordressagagh that I get to take. This practice allows me to be mindful of the beauty that I might capture for others to enjoy while I am in the garden.

So, in this Mindful Gardening Newsletter you will eventually be seeing images from the garden in Cordressagagh and not so many other images that I have used to get started with this Newsletter.  I am looking at creating some flip books on various mindful gardening topics which will be of interest to other gardeners whether of the Mindful kind or not.

The June Festival Idea

I think of Ireland as the land of festivals.  We will have a lot of family and friends coming toward the end of June, so I plan to hold a mini festival in the garden using the various 7 meter tents I have. 

There is also the possibility that we will have the SHE/HE shed built which will allow Bee to have a writing workshop. I might even have the polytunnel reskinned and turn that into a temporary music venue.

We have to change this whole earth into a tremendous festival, and it is possible because man brings all that is needed to transform this earth into a paradise. ~ Rajneesh

I think I am going to rig up some hammocks in Stewart’s Grove amidst the grove of trees and also invite Morag to share a sound bath for those who visit.  Given that its around St. John’s Eve we can sit around a bonfire and sing and chant. 

So that is the opening idea for the end of June 2024.

Archways and Roses

Anyone who knows this garden at Cordressagagh knows how much I love arches and what they symbolize as places of threshold and remembrance.  This week I bought another four climbing roses from David Austin.  These climbing roses are called “The Generous Gardener.”  This is the approach I like to take to gardening on this acre and more.

The roses in the writers garden called Emily Bronte are beginning to put out new stems amidst the ground cover that is Nepeta.  I find Nepeta is a lovely easily maintained alternative to lavender which is really hit and miss here in this garden. 

If you want the moon, do not hide from the night. If you want a rose, do not run from the thorns. If you want love, do not hide from yourself. - Rumi

Lavender Hill

When you have a garden that is more than an acre you can’t deal with it all at once unless you have unlimited funds. 

Last year I concentrated on finalizing the St. Bridget’s Garden and putting in the base for the disaster that was the Orangery (what Bee called her Taj Mahal because it was built with love). So that part of the garden which is called Lavender Hill became overgrown with celandine (buttercup). 

The garden is a sanctuary where the soul finds solace. – The Lavender Garden

I planted six lavender plants that I bought from the polytunnel at the open prison – Loughin House - where I used to teach the inmates meditation. I added some grit and compost to make the soil free draining.  Only one of these plants has survived and one is not doing so well. 

I will plant the hill with Nepeta ‘Junior Walker’ as a substitute, which is quite similar and works well here in Cordressagagh. What is doing extraordinarily well on the slope is Vinca which is now in full flower and will remain that way until late autumn or fall.

I discovered this plant growing in the forest at Ely Lodge Forest when Bee and I led a mindfulness walk on one summer day when the blue dragon flies where hovering above the water.

Summer Day

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean--

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down --

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

Highlights of the Week

A real highlight this week is the way in which the tall purple spires of ajuga which is a ground cover plant have ground really tall below the Ananda blue color of the Vinca Minor which is a real hit and flowers for so long – easily maintained and easy to propagate and it suppresses the weeds.  What more to ask.

This year I will be concentrating in part in exploring planting the slope in front of the cottage that faces due South and gets a lot of sun. One of the reasons we bought this cottage was because of the amount of light that comes through the windows of the corridor that faces South. 

In the summertime it is beautifully sunny and bright. You will find various cats sunbathing in the window.  Felix the cat (the fighter who became a lover) loves to lie on the seed trays that are there but I am not so sure this helps the seed germination.

I will be sharing here the challenges and the rewards of growing plants on a steep slope that faces South.

Conclusion

I feel this newsletter will begin to expand and provide valuable information to those interested in Mindful Gardening.  As I write this newsletter each week, I am given the bones of ideas  think would be useful for readers of this newsletter.

The latest idea is to create an Airtable database for planning the planting of all aspects of the garden here in Cordressagagh.  The advantage will be that I can share screenshots of this information on a weekly basis which will help other gardeners plan their garden. 

This is my part of being “The Generous Gardener” named after the roses which I am awaiting delivery of next week and that will eventually create archways into various garden rooms.  Until next week remember the invitation to Companion Your Greatness

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