How Does My Garden Grow?

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I went to sleep very late last night and I was counting on the fact that, since I had no pressing issues to attend to, I could sleep in. No, that was not to be. I woke up after a few hours to go to the bathroom and that's when I heard it...the siren call of my garden begging for attention. Try as I might I could not go back to sleep. When she calls me, I must answer. Where I intended nothing more than to water the garden, She would not have it. She had been patient long enough, suffering through my extended periods of busyness wherein I could not tend to her. It was time to dress her up for the summer and She wanted me to lay out her clothes.

The sky was overcast with clouds that threatened rain. The air was somewhat cooler than it had been in the past week so it seemed like a good time to do the work that needed doing. Although I had pulled weeds and transplanted flowers last week, there still remained empty patches rapidly refilling with weeds and large clumps of marigolds to be thinned. Pansies and snapdragons that had spontaneously sprouted around the garden had to be corralled into their respective areas, and the snails had to be dealt with. All this I did, and as I uprooted, transplanted, weeded and watered, I couldn't help noticing the smile on my face and how good and energetic I felt in spite of the fact that I hadn't slept nearly enough. At last I stepped back to survey what I had done and I stood in awe. The weedy, open areas of dirt, the dense clumps of marigolds and haphazard patches of pansies were gone. In their places stood orderly rows of flowers and soil free of weeds. It was as if in the process of putting the garden to rights, it had undergone a metamorphosis. It looked better, to be sure, but it was more than that. It FELT better. It felt RIGHT. It was as if everything was finally where it was supposed to be and this created an energetic shift. I looked at my garden as if I was seeing it for the very first time, not unlike the way a father looks at his daughter when she is ready to leave for her prom, with pride, awe and wonder at the beauty of it all. It was a case of the whole being more than just the sum of its parts.

Just as I patted the last plant into place, as if on cue, the first drops of the impending rain began to fall lightly. As I gathered my garden tools to put them away, I remembered the lesson the garden taught me last week..."redistribute your assets and spread the wealth for you already have everything you need". Yes, once again She was correct. Everything I needed to beautify my garden had already been provided for me. All I had to do was put it in its proper place.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

The work continues...

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I have been in my garden up to my eyebrows in earthworms (lots of them), flowers and weeds, thanks to the prodigious amounts of rainfall we've had this June. A recent weather report stated that it rained 20 out of the first 24 days of the month. Where the garden is concerned, I believe in making hay while the sun shines, or in this case, planting flowers while the rain holds off. Planting, transplanting and weeding are all easier to accomplish, although a bit messier, once the ground has been saturated from a good soaking rain.

This year I have a plan to transform my garden from merely attractive to visually spectacular. There have always been large spaces in my front yard garden in between my perennials that are usually bare during the summer. Well, almost bare, if you don't count the constant weed ground cover that grows faster than I can pull it out. I always have the intention of covering up those bare spaces with a flowering ground cover like creeping phlox or maiden pinks but somehow the summer ends, along with my good intentions, and the ground cover never gets planted. This year it's going to be different. I have already gone a long way towards clearing out the weeds in my front yard in spite of the constant rain that keeps them vigorously spreading, and I have begun filling in the bare ground with marigolds. Marigolds are very forgiving plants, flowering endlessly all summer, self seeding and offering the added bonus of acting as a natural mosquito repellent. (Hint: If you plant tomatoes, plant marigolds in between the rows. Marigolds help protect tomatoes from pests both above and below the ground.) In my backyard garden I have already laid in a large swath of impatiens and marigolds. I am also planning on putting in a stone path to allow me to enter and tend the garden without stepping directly on the ground and getting muddy.

As these changes are taking place in my garden, I can feel changes taking place in my mind. One thing that came to mind was something that should be very obvious yet had eluded me for many years. The changes in my garden are taking place because I took the first step and created a clear plan. This gave me a general blue print to follow but it was not so rigid that it could not accomodate changes. It dawned on my that the same thing must occur in the creation of a business. Of course everyone has heard that you have to create a business plan if you want your business to be successful but this one simple step has eluded me. No, not eluded, paralyzed. The thought of creating a business plan filled me with such a paralyzing fear that I never ventured beyond the dream of wanting to build my own business. While I was working in that garden, turning soil and planting impatiens, I realized that a business is like garden. I just have to decide what, where and when I want to plant and slowly follow the plan to do it. If I decided to change things a little, no problem. The plan will allow for that flexibility. It seems so simple. Like Dorothy in Oz, I couldn't see what was in front of me all the time.

Once again my garden has brought me insights I was not able to achieve in conscious thought. Now to put that knowledge into action. In the meantime I will share with you photos of my most recent experiment - an upside down tomato plant. I took a small pail, cut a hole in the bottom and stuck a tomato plant in it, filled it with dirt and hung it up in the sun. I planted marigolds in the top as natural pest control. The tomato is growing well without the need for staking and without dragging on the ground. You can see the nascent tomatoes at the bottom of the second photo, taken about a month after the first photo. We'll see this works out.



Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva