As I get to work in our yard and gardens, I’m reminded how calming it is to get your hands in the dirt, to actually get “grounded.” Being outside in a garden touches on most of your senses – from the feel of the dirt in your hands, to the look of freshly trimmed perennials, to the smell of cut grass and early spring flowers, to the sound of surrounding birds. It’s a whole-body experience.

If you’ve never gardened, even a small flower box or barrel planter will give you the taste of setting a plan, purchasing what you need, and creating something beautiful.

AND if you don’t have room outside or know you don’t have time to keep up even a small garden, how about creating a paper one inside?

• If you don’t already have a few in your mailbox, order a couple of printed gardening catalogs on-line, pick up a couple of gardening magazines, or ask at your library for discarded magazines. These don’t have to be current – just inspiring!
• Flip through and tear out pages that catch your eye. Don’t worry if things match for size or color. Go with your gut and tear to your heart’s content until you have a nice pile. This might be flowers, or it could include little gates, Adirondack chairs, pictures of whirley-gigs… whatever makes you smile.
• Find a plain piece of paper, any size, to use as your base. Whatever size you go with is how big your garden will be. FYI: The first time I did this, I used an entire wall in my bedroom and pinned up about a hundred pictures I thought were beautiful!
• Trim down your favorites and start piecing them together. When you have a garden you like, glue them on if you’re working on paper, or pin them if you’ve got the luxury of a wall to play with.
• Display your garden in a place you’ll see it. All joy – and no weeding required 🙂

Having a place in your yard or in your house that’s just for you and just has stuff you love in it is an important part of self-care. If gardens don’t inspire you, what does? And how can you bring more of that into your life?

The lupines are just coming up here in southern Maine. I’ll post some outrageous shots once these bloom! Namaste.

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