Mindful Gardening Newsletter No 23

It’s Sunday morning here again in Cordressagagh and as I look out the bedroom window I get to see the statue of the small Buddha that I love.  The purple foxgloves that stand either side of it have gone.  This week has been a week of buying climbers. I was in Carrick on Shannon this week on two occasions and I bought a climbing hydrangea.  This one is well established and I have planted it next to the Buddha where I hope it will climb the Hawthorne tree and create an arch of white flowers.  This is on the north side of the cottage which needs some more color.

Buddha and Climbing Hydrangea on North side of Cottage

The Writers Garden

This week I planted more climbers in the writers garden which are a honeysuckle and a golden heart ivy.  I love the idea of having the bamboo cane fence support an array of golden hearts combined with a scent of honeysuckle. The combination of hearts and the word honey in “honeysuckle” reminds me of the lovely lines from an Antonio Machado poem “Last night as I was Sleeping.”

Last night as I was sleeping,

I dreamt—marvelous error!—

that I had a beehive

here inside my heart.

And the golden bees

were making white combs

and sweet honey

from my old failures.

I hope this allows you to dream of making honey out of what you consider your old failures.

The Fruit and Nut Garden

This mornings fruitage of raspberries

I now have a daily task in the garden after I have filled the ceramic bird feeders which incidentally are shaped as bee hives.  There is a real “bee theme” in this garden which I love. It reminds me of another line from a Yeats poem that includes the phrase “Bee loud glade.”  What I love about these feeders are that they are easy to clean and mean that I keep the feeders disease free.  I worry about feeders that are made of wood but these are so pretty and solve that issue.

This daily task is to check on the fruit bushes that include raspberry, strawberry, blackberry and tayberry.  Even if there is only a small amount of berries I take them in an put them in a bowl in the fridge.  The bowl is not full of raspberries.

Staking and Tying Up and Cutting Down

Tree Damaged by High Summer Winds

This week the weather has been changeable. I was surprised by the high winds and even more surprised to find some tree limbs down. So I have had to spend time cutting these away in the Bridget’s Garden and in the planned Yeats Garden.  My heart aches when I see trees damaged in any way.

Given that I want to have garden rooms bounded by climbing roses, honeysuckle, ivy, sweet pea Bee and I have spent some of this week tying up the ever rambling roses to the bamboo canes.  These rambling roses look fabulous from the window of the cottage.

I have managed to take cutting and have them establish.  Tihis is from one rambling rose given to us by a friend who is now a Buddhist monk over at the Tibetan Centre close to Bawnboy in Co. Cavan.  The plant he gave us is going strong and seems to put on a more glorious display the more that I cut it back. 

The Gifts keep coming – Twisted Hazel and Alder Trees

It seems synchronistic to me that given that we have had two trees discard limbs this week that Chris and Bridgit, our neighbors happed to turn up and ask if we wanted to have a twisted hazel tree and an alder tree.  I love alder trees and the twisted hazel looks very ornamental.  I have to consider where I will put them given that I planted about twenty new trees around the edge of the garden with the help of Lennon.

Flowering Abundance within and Without

Flower arrangements within the Cottage and Flower Arrangements without

This week Bee started creating some flower arrangements that go in various rooms in the cottage.  As you can see there are lots of different flowers in the vases and jars and some are sweet William, Emile Bronte roses, daisies and ladies mantle.

The flower bed is of Sweet William that I planted a long time ago and which has been flowering now for months on end.  It cheers me up as I enter the Writers garden during those days when I feel under a cloud given that the whether is a blanket of grey cloud.

Guided Meditation for Inner Gardening

Guided Meditation for Inner Peace

This week I have started another endeavor that I have been thinking about for a very long time but have put off.  This is the writing editing and recording of guided meditations.  I have had such fun doing one or two this week that I would like to share with you the recording of a guided meditation inviting the experience of Inner Peace. This is a guided meditation based on the line from a W. B. Yeats poem “and peace comes dropping slow.

Mindful gardening is not just about tending an outer garden.  Mindful gardening is an invitation to experience inner unity that manifests as outer unity.  In my case part of this manifestation is gardening. Another part is writing, editing and recording guided meditations which come out of the daily practice of going inward.

So that is this week’s Mindful Gardening Newsletter hot of the press here in Cordressagagh.  Next week we have Penny visiting from the UK and Jane visiting from the U.S.A.  So, we are busy getting the spare room ready. Have a great week and happy gardening both within and without.