Garden as Metaphor

As I enter my sixth month of pregnancy, my senses heightened, my belly growing, and my need to nurture dominating all of my life, I am approaching gardening, or perhaps, my journey as gardener as a metaphor for life, for parenting, and for growing and learning as a human being.  In my 22nd week of pregnancy, I feel so connected to the earth, the dirt, what is growing, and am finding that being alone with my garden is of great pleasure and relaxation for me.

And just as in life, when we have our moments that slow us down and make us to stop to notice the world around us, when walking around my garden (because I cannot walk through it, not really, because it consists mostly of small plots) I notice that my mind stops and I am able to stay focused on the work at hand.  I think about my hands in the dirt, moving handfuls into pots or into holes I’ve just dug, gently tugging at plants or placing seeds into the ground, and removing withered petals and leaves so that new life may spring forth from this or that plant.  After working, sweating, and moving back and forth, crossing just 10 feet or so again and again, I feel so awake, so at ease, and so free from thoughts of what I must do (to many close friends I think that I may come across as tightly wound, :-)  I am probably a Type A personality, though not willingly).

And yet, though my garden calms me and centers me, it also brings me back to what is practical in life.  For example, as much as I enjoy being removed from thoughts of what is happening or what I must do (do you keep lists too?), I also like being connected to the mundane, what is real, what actions I must take to tend to this or that problem which needs my attention (for example, a hungry child who needs lunch, a diaper that needs changing, groceries that need to be bought and put away, and laundry, always laundry that needs to be done).  This week in my garden, those problems that needed my full attention were these: 1) reviving my stone crop (the previously unknown perennial growing in my front flower garden), which my neighbor’s cement crew trampled while working to replace her front steps.  I approached the crew the next day to ask them to step around my plants, but I didn’t reveal how very sad I felt for my plants (they are, in a sense, like children to me . . . the metaphor here being that even with the proper love, care, and attention, our plants/children may get hurt/trampled by life simply because of where they were at a certain time); 2) finding a solution to protect my pansies and petunias, which have been eaten by squirrels!  I want to find a remedy that won’t be bad for my soil or for the animals (poison is not an option in my garden), so if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

So far as my “plants as children” metaphor goes, I also see how bringing a new plant or flower into the garden enriches the life there but also requires a great deal of work and attention.  New additions to my garden in the last week include a bright geranium, which I potted and placed on our patio, and a flat of salvia, some of which I potted and some of which I planted near my stone crop (days after my neighbor’s steps were finished).  As much as I love my new plants, I spend more time making sure that they are making it, so to speak.  I’ve also been doing a lot of thinking about cost this week because caring for children and caring for plants can be quite expensive.  During the month of March, I spent close to $100 for plants, soil, seeds, slogs (much needed), and mulch.  To cut costs in the month of April (afterall, we are a family of 3 1/2 plus a cat living on a single income in an area that is known for its high cost of living), I have decided that even though our inside space is tight, I will begin seeding plants that I’d like to grow.  So far I’ve seeded parsely, bulbs (varieties that bloom in late summer, and yes, if you’ve been following these garden posts, they are coming up now that I’ve moved them inside!), tomatoes, and sunflowers (more on seeding later this week).  My husband still wants to leave the door open for our purchasing small but full grown plants at farmers’ markets, but I hope I am successful with seedlings because I have big plans for our garden and would like to grow a great deal this year . . . and that, without growing from seeds, could add up to quite a bit!

Well now, for the photos of what is growing:

my pleasant geranium, who is doing well when left outside overnight even though I worry about her,

some potted salvia (I can’t wait to see them at 10 or 12 inches tall!),

potted hostas, growing, growing, growing (and so easy to care for , they are like a child that sleeps well and never says a peep . . . good ground cover but can be quite boring on their own),

ivy and japanese spurge (ground cover that I previously did not know the name for; both of which also do well with little care, though ivy is a weed, one that I’m going to encourage to spread out in my garden and hopefully up some fencing or plant supports so that we may have more privacy from our neighbors),

the butterfly bush, which really does attract butterflies,

spinach (I’ve thinned it twice now and still it seems to be growing in so close together . . . it breaks my heart to have to pull out more baby seedlings . . . just for the record, I have no idea what I would do if I were pregnant with octoplets!  I’d probably take the risk, carry and birth them all and then recruit all of my family to help me care for them),

moving along, my peas are growing in far more sparse than is the spinach,

and inside, I’ve clipped some beautiful forsythia which is growing wild in our woods.

Last, but certainly not least, Annabelle is helping me in the garden even when she isn’t getting her hands dirty; that is, she blows bubbles and lets me have the time to rake, dig, prune, and otherwise tend to my plants.  And because she is so darn cute and I can’t help myself, I thought I’d share just a few more . . .

Annabelle blows more bubbles,

wanders through my neighbor’s garden (and up her nice new cement steps) and into the side yard to toss some leaves into the woods,

admires the glowing daffodils,

and smells a fragrant hyacinth  (my sense of smell is so heightened, I can smell these from 10 feet away),

and last, just being the beautiful little girl that she is, always wanting to see what her mommy is doing, wanting to lend a hand, and wanting to make sure that I notice her doing the things that she does.   Don’t worry, I do.

And so, how is your garden growing this week?  As always, thank you for stopping by to take a peak into mine, :-)