Every autumn, I drop into my local bookstore to choose the calendars that will hold reminders and guide my daily living through the coming year. The “master” calendar, a desk agenda production, resides by the phone on a kitchen counter.
This past autumn, I chose an attractive and edifying calendar titled Inner Reflections. Each two-page layout has the seven-day calendar part on the left and a gorgeous nature photograph on the right. Below the photos are selections from the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda, a prominent 20th century spiritual teacher.
For the week of Dec. 28 to Jan. 3, the quotation below a photo of two purple crocuses blooming above a bed of snow provoked many thoughts:
“Picture the New Year as a garden you are responsible for planting.”
Experienced gardeners are well practised in planning for and plotting out the gardening year. Flower and vegetable seeds are acquired. Rough sketches are made of plots and beds with suitable sites for chosen plants marked out. Supplies are accumulated for a smooth start to the planting season. When the heavy winter rains stop, plots are prepared for planting with composts and fertilizer.
In applying the planting and care of a garden to planning for and nurturing ones’ best hopes for the new year in general, as the Yogananda quote suggests, questions ensue:
What seeds (attitudes, practices, virtues?) to plant?
How best to make those seeds grow, flourish, and bear fruit?
What needs weeding out?
Personally, I’m aiming for a salutary attitude tweaking, on both fronts. I want to lighten up more and slow down enough to take pleasure in every little enterprise encountered through each day. Neither life nor the garden is meant to be a giant to-do list.
Gardening holds great power to brighten daily life. After a rather drab and restricted year, I long for uplifting bursts of cheering colour and fragrance, and vivid flavours in home-grown foods.
Available time and energy levels allowing, I aim to fill the house and garden with bright colour this year — lots of cheery blooms in the garden, more cut flowers in the house, richly hued and intensely flavourful vegetables — bright orange carrots, dark green and purple broccoli and cauliflower, white and purple fleshed daikon radishes, bronze and red lettuces.
I wish to take time to stop and stare more. As I’m writing this, the garden outside the office window is alive with small birds flitting through the shrubs and trees, seeking food. Why not pause to watch a while as they pick up seeds from the ground and from plants left untrimmed over the winter?
Help. It can be hard to admit that you need help, on many fronts. This year, I aim to reach out for more help, as I’m able, for larger, more muscular projects. I’m slowly learning to admit defeat in some landscape situations, like storm-trashed sections of fence, huge pruning projects and collapsing outdoor structures.
Help came at Christmas from my son, who brought an impressive array of tools and was eager to help with some daunting projects.
First, there was an overgrown Fremontia that had become uprooted in a storm and was toppled over onto the driveway. Christopher’s electric saw made short work of removing enough of the shrub to enable us to stake it upright again.
His tools allowed for easy sharpening of shovel blades and sanding smooth the long handles of my main garden tools — shovels, fork, hoe, rake and more. He also quickly dismantled semi-collapsed shelving against a side fence beside the carport.
For some, happily accepting help is a useful exercise in attitude-tweaking, and humility.
Plant Identification and Culture. The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd. in Saanich, is hosting the next class in this monthly course on Saturday, Jan. 23, 1 to 4 p.m. In each class Diane Pierce discusses 25 new plants. The course can be joined at any time. Bring a mask. Member/other cost per session $35/$45, for 12 sessions $350/$450. For details and online registration, go to hcp.ca/events to find a calendar. Click on a course to access its details. The site’s home page also lists courses. For safety regulations during the pandemic, type “Horticulture Centre of the Pacific + COVID rules” into a search engine. Register online or by phone: 250-479-6162.
