The Mindful Gardener Newsletter No 41
Cultivating Grace: Reflections on Inner Gardens and Winter Blooms
In this weeks edition of the Mindful Gardening Newsletter you are invited to:-
• Discover the Wisdom of the Garden: Explore the profound lessons of Scottish mystic Sydney Banks, whose teachings on mind, consciousness, and thought can transform the way we tend to both our inner and outer gardens.
• Inner Journaling, Outer Growth: Dive into the art of journaling as a spiritual practice with insights from Janet Connor’s Writing Down Your Soul. Unlock a deeper connection to your inner voice and witness how it shapes the garden of your life.
• Technology Meets Tradition: Learn how modern tools like the Airtable Garden app and simple video recording can enhance the mindful gardener's journey, helping document and plan for a flourishing garden in 2025.
• Winter’s Resilient Blooms: Celebrate the beauty of winter gardening with the emergence of Lenten roses, primroses, and snowdrops. Find inspiration in the resilience of nature and the promise of spring amidst the frost.
The Mindful Gardening Newsletter No 41
It’s Christmas Day and I am having a lovely day tucked up under the covers and busy writing and listening to some YouTube videos from the latest mystic I have discovered who wrote The Enlightened Gardener where the title of the book declares “A wise old gardener teaches the principles of Mind, Consciousness and thought.” This is Sydney Banks who was born in Scotland and who travelled the world later in life sharing his experience of his enlightenment experience and how to access it.
A traveler without observation is a bird without wings. The gardener of the heart observes its soil, planting wisdom and removing weeds. – Saadi of Shiraz
As a Christmas present Bee bought me the book The Garden Against Time – In Search of a Common Paradise.” As a mindful gardener which has its focus on inner gardening that then manifests as a garden of grace I am interested in reading about this idea of a “common paradise.” The word “paradise” means “walled garden.” I have started reading this book and it has beautiful writing in it by Olivia Laing. We will see how this book invites ideas for the garden in 2025 which I may well share here in this newsletter.
The Gardening Diaries and Journals
Photo by Love Photoroom on Unsplash
It’s that time of year when the garden is at rest, and I take my que from that. I have been given a lot of journals this year which is synchronistic because I was writing about synchronicity for my new Substack Newsletter Bringing Heaven to Earth which has a year’s articles written and will be launched on my birthday on 20th March 2025. It’s a kind of legacy that invites a practical way of living that I think people need to tune into in order to negotiate the ever increasing pace of change.
Don’t try to hide inside anger. Radiate it out. Write it as a poem. Turn it into something beautiful, for the ink of the heart knows how to heal. - Rumi
Got a journal which I will begin to write in each day. What I intend to write about is the exploration of journaling as a spiritual practice that the writer Janet Connor calls Writing Down your Soul – How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within. Access to this dimension is what is missing from most people’s lives and means that they have little alternative but to put their trust in advancing technology and materialism. However, this results in the unfolding of a kind of addiction to the experience of never being quite enough.
Exploring Technology for the Garden
Airtable database of plants
For next year 2025 I want to do more recording by way of video. To this end I am going to start with a mobile phone on the end of a selfie stick. I have both of these but next week will explore making them work by way of a new battery and possibly another app download. I have avoided having a mobile phone forever other than to use it for the guitar tuner app on it. Time to explore taking more video in the garden and sharing the Presence here in Cordressagagh.
I think I will also explore using the Airtable Garden app as provided by Steve’s Seaside Kitchen Garden and Allotment which is free to download and you can also download the Airtable program for free. Then you can adopt the design to fit your needs.
Plans between Christmas and the New Year
Creating Garden Paths to walk on safely
Over the last week there have been high winds and a lot of rain which when I go to feed the birds, I find huge puddles of water in very many places. Last month I purchased some grids to use as a foundation for the planned potting shed and later found that these were great for walking on in those parts of the garden where one’s foot might sink into the ground (a very common issue). So, I have decided to invest in more of these as I can hide them under gravel, and they really give me and anyone else walking in the garden a sense of secure ground.
Run, my dear, from anything that may not strengthen your precious budding wings. Keep your feet on the solid ground of love, for it is there that you will find the Beloved. - Hafiz of Shiraz
The high winds have meant more fallen trees. Looks like a tree graveyard. Have around fifteen new alder bare root trees that are to go in and which don’t get blown over. There are around fifty other bare root trees that I cannot recognize and can’t find an order for so I will begin to plant these in large pots and see what they turn into.
If the weather remains cold and wet I am remaining inside. If not, I’ll continue to plant out the combination of red robin and laurel hedging that will become the new living walls around various garden rooms. Amidst these I might add some wild rose bare roots that came as a gift.
The Arising of the Winter Garden
Lenten Rose coming into flower – New Year’s Eve
As I walk around the garden that has been ravaged by storm damage I see the beginnings of plants coming into their own. The Lenten rose is beginning to put out some flowers and it reminds me that I want to plant more of these so that I have a large sway of flowers to look at beginning early January. The lovely thing about this plant is that now you have an extra-ordinary variety of color.
The rose’s rarest beauty blooms not in the easy spring, but in the hard frost, where only love can keep it alive. - Rumi
Also putting their heads above ground are the primroses “Quaker Bonnet.” These have a lovely mauve color and from one plant I now have a whole bank load. My friend Mark in Chepstow in Wales is envious because he says he has tried to grow these without success and he is a great gardener. There are also the snowdrops which are beginning to poke their heads above ground. Still a long way to go till spring arrives but today (New Year’s eve) is unseasonably warm.
The New Year Celebrations
Kirtan celebrations at Christmas
Our Goddaughter Annie and her boyfriend Adam are coming to stay over new year. Our friend Joanne telephoned earlier in the week and following our conversation I was excited to think we would have a party here or probably at the Dowra Courthouse if its available to rent. The idea would be to have a Kirtan session with some food and drink and celebrate the entrance of the New Year with some real song and cheer.
The heart sings songs of devotion not because it seeks reward but because it knows no other way to exist. – Ibn Arabi
I am hoping that our new friend Claire, who is a yoga teacher and kirtan singer will join us. Otherwise, it might be me singing a combination of kirtan and heart songs but that would be fun too. At the time of writing this update (New Year’s Eve) the lovely Clare has lost her voice from all the singing she was doing over the holiday. So any celebration will be here before the fire in the front room.
Mindful Reflection for this Week
One of the best pieces of advice I discovered toward the end of this year is the practice of “Give no thought.” This is really a great discovery and allows me to feel happy for no reason. I think its why I have been introduced to the Scottish mystic Sydney Banks who I have found someone very down to earth with a sense of humor.
When the mind is quiet, we can find the wisdom to guide us through life. The quieter you become, the more you hear. – Sydney Banks – Contemporary Scottish mystic.
I think this is a practice for modern day living where most of the time people spend living their lives in their heads listening to thoughts that appear from nowhere which they then run with and that creates most of the unnecessary suffering both individually and collectively.
This is the final Mindful Gardening newsletter of 2024. Its New Year’s eve and there will be lots of mulled wine, great food and snacks and blessed company. Its been a lot of fun writing this newsletter in 2024 and I hope to share a more colorful garden in 2025 with some video. I hope you have a great holiday, and I look forward to sharing the unfolding of the garden of grace that I am blessed to steward here in Cordressagagh. Blessings Tony and Bee.