Mindful Gardening

A year of mindfulness and gardening

authors own garden photo and book cover image

I have a lovely and quite large garden, two-thirds of an acre in total, mostly at the rear of the house. It has evolved massively since we first moved here nearly eight years ago, and it has changed from a near wildlife desert with a few trees and shrubs surrounded by short grass, to a space filled with pollinators and other wildlife. I brought with me nearly five hundred plants and trees from our last garden, because it was that wonderful thing that many gardeners long for with a new garden, a blank canvas.

The size of it enables me to have plant-specific areas and its layout and differing conditions mean it has many microclimates of its own. For instance the lower area is a marshy wet woodland which I have edited and added to over the years here. This part is bordered by drainage ditches on both sides and a stream running along the bottom throughout the year, draining into the sea not so far away from us.

the slightly wild woodland garden complete with horsetails

Here is our buddha statue, and the stone benches I sit on to contemplate with him in the shade on hot summer days, or huddle onto with mugs of hot tea on colder winter ones. He always listens silently to my concerns and his silence…