The Joy of Symbolic Gardening

Planting a Garden with Meaning and Purpose

Here in Cordressagagh I explore the various plans I have for developing a garden of magic and wellbeing.  This involves exploring plants, design and sculpture that invite the remembrance of connection and creativity.

In this weeks edition of The Mindful Gardening I share with you ideas around:-

• Symbolic Plant Ideas

• Symbolic Garden Sculpture.

• Symbolic Garden Furniture and

• Conclusion.

Symbolic Plant Ideas

Photo by David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

I love hostas and so in fact do slugs and snails but no matter I have planted a lot of these and intend to plant more.  This week I received an order from Farmer Gracy which includes two giant hostas which I will plant at the back of the hellebores that are presently in full bloom. 

I will be checking these hellebores once the flowers have gone over so that I begin to collect the seed. Growing them from seed is tricky but worth the effort.

Returning to the hostas one of these I love is called “Praying Hands” because when it comes to maturity it looks like the plant is in prayer. I’m thinking that as part of the pathway to the entrance of the planned labyrinth I will edge such a path with a lengthy line of “Praying Hands” as it weaves through the sacred Stewarts Grove.

To add color, I will explore planting a mixture of “Dicentra – Alba” also known as “bleeding hearts.”  I would mix the red of “Dicentra- Valentine” and “Dicentra – Alba.” Rather than one or two I think I will explore what it looks like to plant them in droves.  In addition to add some interest during the autumn/fall I would include a mixture of grasses and an edging of heuchera.

If I were someone who loved the idea of being a patriot (which I am not interested in) one could plant row of hostas with that name “Patriot.”  Outside Dowra there is a Sinn Fein memorial garden and if I were designing for that garden which is very shady then the Hosta “Patriot” would certainly be one I would include along with the Dicentra “Bleeding hearts” because that would be symbolic of sacrifice.

There is another Hosta I would love to acquire (am I becoming a hostaolic?) which has the name “Hallelujah.”  I don’t see that in the catalogues or available from suppliers here in Ireland and Europe.  Neither do I see it available in the UK but there are restrictions re buying from the UK given the Brexit regulations.

Viewing plants in a symbolic way adds a deeper meaning to the creative process that is garden design.  When you enter such a garden there is an unspoken reverence that emanates from the intention and attention that has been given to the planting design.  It is infused with love and respect.

Symbolic Garden Sculpture

The Moment - Man Asking for Silence

At the entrance to the proposed labyrinth, I envisage a duo of a small garden sculpture. This is of the head of a man with a finger to his lips who is asking for silence. 

I have bought two of these as a birthday present for myself. I have been graced to reach the age of 74 years old and am as I so often say, “Growing bolder not older” and “Sageing not ageing.”  I am not sure about the Sageing but that would be more to do with the grace of Divine Intention.

I will build a couple of plinths for these whispering man statues, and it would be lovely to have them lit up at night using solar powered lights the same way that you see Cathedrals and Churches lit up at night and in the same way that we have solar dragonfly lights on the garden arches.

This symbol of the whispering man asking for silence is appropriate for anyone intending to walk a labyrinth. You walk in silence to the centre which symbolises your entry into the centre of who you truly are.

I would also like to have a banner which has a quote (or a few banners with quotes) from one of my favorite writers.  This is Gunilla Norris author of The Mystic Garden – Working with Soil. Attending to Soul and Inviting Silence – How to Find Inner Stillness and Calm.

Silence reveals. Silence heals. Silence is where God dwells. We long to be there. – Gunilla Norris

Silence is the language of God.  All else is poor translation – Rumi.

The nearest thing to God is Silence. – Meister Eckhart

Silence takes you beyond words and thought into a state of allowing where Divine Intention thinks through you.  This is Creation dancing through you would that you be so allowing.

Symbolic Furniture

Cream Butterfly Vintage Metal Garden Bench

One key aspect of a garden is the seating.  Here in Cordressagagh there isn’t enough seating, which I will address this year (2024).  I was researching seating on the internet and found a wrought iron bench which had as its back the symbol of a butterfly.

I love that symbol.  It is the ultimate symbol of transformation.

Like a butterfly, I have been reborn with bold colours and newfound wings, ready to embrace transformation and soar to new heights." – Unknown

When one would sit on this bench you might choose to remember that you are really the caterpillar who is destined to turn into the magnificence of the butterfly and as Rumi beautifully reminds us in one of his poems:-

You were born with potential.

You were born with goodness and trust.

You were born with ideals and dreams.

You were born with greatness.

You were born with wings.

You are not meant for crawling, so don’t.

You have wings.

Learn to use them and fly.

~Rumi

I remember when Bee first read this poem to young school children when she was giving a workshop on words there was silence in the room.  Most of the children could not imagine their being so magnificent.

The Mindful Gardening Website

It’s been windy, wet, and cold here in Cordressagagh.  I have wanted to plant up an order I received from Mr. Middleton that included Brunner – Alexander’s Great and Dicentra – Valentine and including the Astilbe “Milk and Honey.”

For this Mindful Gardener the name is symbolic of entering that liminal space beyond time referencing the invitation to “A land flowing with milk and honey.” Like most invitations within the Bible this is not to be taken literally but symbolically.

Also included in this order from Mr. Middleton garden shop was an ornamental grass that I bought in remembrance of my mother. She was an Irish redhead.  I wrote more about this grass planted in her remembrance here.  She would be so chuffed to think that her son was planting part of a garden in her remembrance given that gardening was really what she loved.

Given that it is so wet I haven’t done much in the garden other than feed the birds.  So, I spent time this week adding a bookshop to the website https//mindfulgardening.ie that includes sections related to:-

·         Mindful Gardening.

·         Inner Gardening.

·         Garden Design.

·         Garden Wisdom

·         Shade Gardening and

·         Garden Styles.

This is an affiliate program by Bookshop.org. This is a company that promotes local bookshops both in the U.K. and U.S.A. as an alternative to Amazon.  If you buy a book here, then I get a small commission, but it doesn't cost the buyer anymore.

Conclusion

RHS Slate Bench

I find it so much more fun designing a garden that has, as Gunilla Norris says in her book “Mystic Garden” the process of working with soil and attending to soul. There are many soulless gardens around and with the invitation from Mindful Gardening I hope that you are given a wider and deeper invitation to what a garden can be.

Not only for you but for your relationship with what I call Divine Intention. This is your primary relationship with that beyond the limitation of your separate personal self.

So that is what has been happening in Cordressagagh this week (other than finalizing kitchen design).  I hope this week’s edition of the Mindful Gardening Newsletter will have given you some ideas about how you might tend both your outer and your inner garden so that you become the blooming soul you are created to be.