Mindful Gardening Newsletter No 25

Mindful Gardening Newsletter – Week No 25

The weather here in Cordressagagh has been changeable.  The roads and back lanes have been full of tractors in convoy on their way to get in the hay.  When I walk the lane to the holy well at Tuber with the little white dog there is the smell of new mown hay. It is lovely but over the last few years I seem to have become more suspectable to hay fever.

Although there hasn’t been much planting in the garden, we have had a fabulous time in the garden with friends visiting from different places.  There is Jane from Rhode Island in the U.S.A. There is Penny from Saffron Waldon in the UK and Betty came over from Enniskillen in Northern Ireland. We had a feast created by Bee, but the delight was to sit in Stewart’s Grove around the fire while the ladies chatted, and I played guitar.

Stewart’s Grove Evolves

Laying bark in Stewart’s Grove for sitting by fire pit

Here in Cordressagagh the garden evolves. I now have clear favorite places in the garden, but I realize that there are so many now.  I have been working/playing in developing the space within the self-seeded circle of willow trees I call Stewart’s grove.

I have spent the last week barking the ground which suppresses the weeds and makes the ground level and thus makes it safer to walk on. There are now two butterfly backed benches to sit on around the fire and we use the old dog cage as a place to put the tea and cake. is enjoyed with great conversation.

Once the space is cleared of weeds and briars I will add a small three meter bell tent. I am hoping that by doing so I can get a dear friend to visit with her two small children who I would love to meet.  They would love staying in the tent and sitting around the fire listening to this Mindful Gardener play their songs.

The Bridget’s Garden

Borage for the Bees

This year I am mindful that there seems to be less butterflies and bees.  This I think has something to do with the weather.  One focus of this garden is to ensure that it is wildlife and bee friendly.  One of my delights is to stand by the phacillea (which is a green manure) and listen to the buzz of bees and other wasps (not the stinging kind).  It’s my bee loud glade.

In this garden room the annual sweet peas are beginning to climb the bamboo canes and mingle with the climbing roses whose flowers have now gone over and whose petals litter the ground with their delightful shades of pink and red.

A Garden of Remembrance

Tibetan Prayer Flags that has sent their prayers into the ether.

An aspect of this garden that I love is that it is a garden of remembrance.  This is for friends and family who have passed but also as a reminder to be present to the moment and to tune into the awareness of the beauty that is beyond the over thinking mind.

The longer I live the deeper my love of silence.  It used to be something that I would practice as a spiritual practice.  Now it becomes a loving presence that I abide in and am graced to do so. 

All over this garden are symbols inviting me to remember the Source that is the One Life that gives all life.  One of those symbols I intend to replace are the washed out Tibetan prayer flags in Stewart’s Grove.  Stewart was a beautiful man who I met when I worked for the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order at their charity then called Aid for India. He was attending at a Tibetan Buddhist Centre in London.

There are prayers on the flags which are blown into the wind and into the ether with the intention of sending blessings into the world of form from the Formless. I especially love the idea of prayer without words and prayer without words with the intention to bless.

The Idea of an Open Day

Sligo Gardens Open Day 2024

Last week when I met up with friends at the Ardcarne Garden Centre in Knockvicar close to Boyle and Joanne mentioned that there was an open gardens festival happening around the Sligo area.  She has promised to send details.

This morning while barking more of Stewart’s Grove I was thinking that two years from now I would have the garden ready for inviting an open day.  One of the joys of developing this garden is that I am graced to be able to share it. Not only share the space but share the bounty that is part of the space by way of vegetables, fruit and nuts and flowers.

More than this there is sharing the energy of the garden.  The intention behind this garden was always to create what I call a “Garden of Grace.” The idea of doing so came from a line from the lyric of the song “Chasing Cars” by the group Snow Petrol.  I always saw the title “Chasing Cars” as a song about chasing thoughts around one’s head. There is a line in the song that goes “I need your grace to remind me.” 

Chasing Cars Video

So, I have all these reminders of the grace that I am blessed to KNOW and to share.  The reminder being that this “Grace” is not something you get but is a Presence you are.

Creating a Secret Garden Meditation

To promote such remembrance of the Grace that you are I am developing another Substack Newsletter called Spiritual Pathways.  This week I wrote and continue to write a guided meditation and reflection thereon called “The Secret Garden.” Here is an extract.

This garden speaks to you, not with words or thoughts, but with a still, small voice. It is a voice that knows you by heart, the voice of inner knowing that has loved you all your life.

As you walk deeper into this secret garden, the path beneath your feet transforms into a lush chamomile lawn. Each step you take releases the calming scent of chamomile, deepening your sense of relaxation and peace. You arrive at one of the garden rooms, known as The Room of Inner Knowing.

The entrance to this room is an archway adorned with the roses of Peace and Compassion. As you pass through the archway, you feel a profound sense of allowing. Here, in this sacred space, you trust that the seeded potential within you can be fully known so that you can know I am blessed and can bless.

This guided meditation is intended to invite you to cultivate the inner garden within you.

Conclusion

Astilbe in ditch beginning to bloom

So I hope you have a great week in the garden and tend not only your outer garden but your inner garden so that you flower the magnificence that is seeded within you. The best way to do this is to begin to have a relationship with silence. This allows you to access 90% of your brain by way of an alpha state. This is a state of allowing.

I thought we came here
To surrender in Silence,
To yield to Light and Happiness,
To Dance within
In celebration of Love’s Victory!

 ~ Hafiz