Mindful Gardening Newsletter No 14

Mindful Gardening Newsletter No 14

The weather here in Cordressagagh has been varied but I have managed to get in three or four days in the garden with bouts of sunshine and without a prevailing east wind.  It’s been lovely.

When Bee and I were married coming up to seven and one-half years ago I was enrolled in what is called a “Husband in Training Program.”  It seems its ongoing and  a program where one never graduates. Friends often remind me when there appears to be a step backward. 

This week there has been the establishment of the “Wife in Training Program.” This is where the husband insists that the wife sit in the sunshine in Bridget’s Garden and practice “doing nothing” rather than spend time when the sun is out mopping floors. Not that the sun is mopping floors but Bee is.

The program for each spouse is being monitored as I write given that the sunshine is out and there is the opportunity to sit and feel blessed at having the peace and tranquility that surrounds this garden in Cordressagagh.

Decluttering the Garden

Last year I had a friend (Atma) scrap of the top layer of couch grass that was much of the garden furthest away from the cottage.  This resulted in the ground becoming covered in bindweed.  This is the garden equivalent of the expression “Out of the frying pan into the fire.”  To give myself some breathing space I covered the ground and resulting soil banks of weeds in black plastic which is the only thing that gives me a chance to manage a space of this size.

When I weed the garden I put the weeds, mostly celandine and couch grass into the empty compost bags that I then use to weigh down the black plastic which gets blown off the banks in the high winds that come through Cordressagagh in the autumn and winter.  This has also been highly effective with gifted horse manure which is very heavy and with bagging becomes usable in about a year.

This week I collected all these half filled bags and put them in a central spot in Stewart’s Grove which is having a major weed out and where I hope to put a few small 3 metre tents to accommodate the festival I hope to have toward the end of June 2024 and probably later in the year around August.

Now walking in the garden, the energy feels different. This is Feng Shui gardening in action.

A Little Bird Told Me

One of my commitments to Mindful Gardening is the relationship I have with the birdlife in this garden in Cordressagagh.  This morning while writing part of this Newsletter a little bird came and tapped on the bedroom window.  This happens on occasion and its like a call to say, “OK, where’s breakfast?”

So, I went out and filled the seramic birdfeeders in the shape of a beehive and filled them with black sunflowers seed and placed some fatballs in the stems of the willow tree on which they hang.

I then went back to writing and the little bird continued to come to the window.  I was reminded of a story told in the Sounds True audio recording “Dreamgates” where Robert Moss visited a local shaman.  They sat talking on the porch and a bird came and sat on part of the porch. The shaman then said to Robert, “I have to go now to visit my brother who has fallen sick.”

I had been thinking of telephoning my twin brother Jeff for a while but had left it because we had visitors for ten days. So, I thought “Maybe I should ring my brother Jeff?” and so I went and picked up the phone.  We had a lovely conversation and at the end of it he said, “Thank that little bird for me.” 

Since the telephone conversation it has been back several times, so I have arranged to have a WhatsApp meeting with my brother John who is in a home for the elderly.

Paying it Forward with London Pride

I had a visitor to my website from Galway send me an email asking where he might buy the London Pride plant as featured in my blog Uncovering the Beauty of the London Pride Plant. The thing is that it is hard to find so I suggested I send him some of the stock that I have growing in the garden. 

So, I am looking at sending some London Pride cuttings in a small cardboard eggbox so that they don’t get crushed in the post.  Hoping that the four year old Lillie might come and discover what plant propagation entails with her new birthday present of gardening gloves and child watering can in colors of pink and green.

Planted up four David Austin roses named The Generous Gardener which is a scented climbing rose that will cascade over the various arches that are entrance ways to the various garden rooms we have created.  Seems that having planted up these roses it is appropriate that I live the energy of the generous gardener.

The Gardener - by Mary Oliver

Have I lived enough?
Have I loved enough?
Have I considered Right Action enough, have I come to any conclusion?
Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?
Have I endured loneliness with grace?

I say this, or perhaps I’m just thinking it.
Actually, I probably think too much.

Then I step out into the garden,
where the gardener, who is said to be a simple man,
is tending his children, the roses.

Great Gardening Resource Idea

I am always looking for ways to promote my website Mindful Gardening and this week I discovered the site called Flipboard.com.  This is a site where a writer can link their website to Flipboard and any written article becomes available to many readers who use this service.

This is a great resource for anyone wanting great content on diverse topics.  It is FREE to subscribe to.  I have subscribed and added the categories gardening and spirituality.  The gardening articles are fabulous and varied.  The articles on spirituality are not so great but worth having a look at.

The Vegetable Garden

This week there has been a lot happening in the vegetable garden.

·       Last of the potatoes Irish Gold and Axon planted.

·       Leek plugs planted bought from Ashwood Nurseries in Enniskillen.

·       More onions planted courtesy of Morag Donald. (We’ll be coming down in onions this year).

·       Carrots sown by way of tape seed from Suttons via instruction from Bumblebee Farm tutorial on how to grow great carrots – great success last year for the first time.

·       Spring onions planted courtesy of Andy from Kildare.

·       More strawberry plants planted up courtesy of Jenny from Dowra village.

I give a little get a lot.

Grass cuttings courtesy of Micheal McCann now mulching the strawberry beds and the raised bed of Brussel sprouts including mulching the Generous Gardener David Austin roses.

There are many generous gardeners and others in my life.

Inner Gardening

5 Best Garden Poetry Quotes – The Mindful Gardener

Mindful gardening is not simply the manifestation of a beautiful garden.  Foundationally speaking the garden manifests from the way in which you cultivate the inner garden of potentiality seeded within you.  This seeded potential doesn’t necessarily make you a gardener.

For many people this seeded potential is overgrown with weeds of negativity and self doubt borne of a fear of entering within.  A lot of that in my own case originated from the Christian teachings that I was given as a young man with the primary focus on guilt and sin rather than on celebration of the connection that is always available but that one must plug into. 

As an inner gardener you must tend the seed. You must be tender with what is to be birthed within you and through you. Its an arrogance of the personal sense of self if you declare that there is little to be bloomed and cultivated through the form that you are. 

Let the Beauty that you are be the work that you do – Rumi.

Write that statement in your heart and not just your mind.  Mindfulness is not intellectualism but the fullness and Presence of the Heart living in Companionship with the Greatness within you. If you say “No” to it, then don’t expect it to become a garden of delight.  If you say “Yes” then you must begin the journey of trusting your magnificence.  Until next week Happy Gardening.