By The Green Parent
02nd June 2017
I didn’t grow up gardening. Naturally there were people around me who did garden. My grandparents all gardened; I watched them garden and I enjoyed the fruits of their labour. But it all seemed such a mystery to me – a science I thought I could never understand. But at a certain point in my life, shortly before my own children were born, I decided I wanted a closer connection to the food I ate. I wanted to better understand where my daily nourishment was coming from. So I found a plot in a community garden and just dove in. I had moderate results that year in terms of yield. But the process was an amazingly successful one for me in other ways that I soon fell in love with.
Since that first year, I’ve never had a season without a garden. Some have been quite grand when time, space, energy and resources have allowed. Other years – with a brand new baby at my side, or a small apartment yard, or a busy season of change – just a few herbs were planted. A wise farmer friend says, “Never let a season go by without planting something.” I find that to be so true. No matter how simple or grand the gardening plans are, a wonderful benefit comes from putting something in the ground and watching it grow, year in and year, out.
The most revolutionary thing I’ve learned about gardening in this time is – quite fittingly – the most simple fact of all. Plants know how to grow. It is their job to grow. It sounds so simple, really but the truth is profound. “The Nature of this flower is to bloom,” Alice Walker, American author and poet, once said. And that simple beautiful truth is what’s precisely so magical about gardening.
Gardening is not something we can control. It isn’t something that we can manage. Despite our best efforts, research and dollars spent on all the latest gadgets or weed management, sometimes a crop just doesn’t grow. And to the opposite – no matter what we may do to prevent it, sometimes those plants do grow. Have you ever seen a flower growing through the crack in the concrete? Or seen the roots of a tree literally uprooting the foundation of a house? Their power is mighty; their strength is inspiring. It is nature’s job to grow – despite the odds against it, despite the concrete poured over it. Plants will grow.
“"Children have that wonderful balance of carefree confidence that allows them to fully believe that all they plant will grow"”
Once I began to realise that my role as gardener was to nurture the earth, to care for the seeds, and to honour the connection between the two, well, that’s when my gardening productivity increased tenfold. And my experience in doing so became even more profound. There is much magic, art and mystery in the process to balance out all the science and facts and techniques that we can learn. And in this way, a wonderful richness comes from that annual, deep and nourishing connection to the earth as we work with it to provide the sustenance we need to continue our days.
My time spent gardening is among my favourite moments from the way our days are spent right now. Planting seeds with help from so many little hands. Preparing the soil with the same little ones who sing with glee at each worm unearthed. Checking each morning for the first signs of growth. Spending peaceful moments in the Zen-like act of weeding, often a rare moment of solitude for mama. Learning with my children just the right time to harvest a vegetable. And ultimately, bringing it all inside and onto our table to feast upon and nourish my family.
Children are the most natural of little gardeners. They have that wonderful balance of carefree confidence that allows them to tromph through a field, pick up earthworms and fully believe that all they plant will grow, combined with a delicate and gentle nature that reminds them to stop, stroke and talk with a growing plant as though magic were happening in front of them. Because it is, of course, quite magic.
Put something in the ground. Watch it grow. The nature of this flower is to bloom.
Amanda Blake Soule is mama to four (soon to be five!) little ones and wife to Steve (aka SoulePapa). She blogs about family life at soulemama.typepad.com More of Amanda’s writing can be found in The Rhythm of Family. See tinyurl.com/amandasoule.
This article was first published in The Green Parent Issue 40. To read content from all our back issues subscribe to our digital editions and get full access to our archive.
