The long season this year made me more aware of the emotional and spiritual aspects of gardening. To hold earth in your hand, to plant, to tend to a growing plant and benefit from the beauty of a flower or shrub, or the tastiness of a vegetable, is a spiritual act.
It reflects on the power of creation. It isn’t by chance that all ancient religions have stories of a garden being the first gift from the creator.
Farmers and gardeners alike feel a sense of belonging to the soil.
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One challenge of aging is having to downsize your living accommodation and move out of a house you have been in for years. For many, losing their flower or vegetable garden is a big grief issue. There is a sense of personal accomplishment when you pick a vegetable out of your garden and have it with dinner, or have flowers from your garden on the table.
Home gardening is something you can’t do with a machine. You have to handle the soil and add mulch, leaves and other nutrients, particularly when potting plants or starting seedlings. You and the earth have to become one.
Donna Sinclair, a writer for the United Church Observer, has explored how
connection, balance, memory, healing and hope are found within the garden in her book The Spirituality of Gardening, Woodlake Books.
The cycle of a garden, beginning, maturity and ending, is the same as the human life cycle. As Sinclair said, “simply turning over the compost is to marvel at nature’s cycle of decay and renewal.”
Gardening can provide a sense of overabundance. We can grow a huge amount of tomatoes, zucchini or crabapples, and then need to find ways to share it with others.
Gardens can also be a history of your family and friendship. Gardeners are giving people and share seeds and roots from their flower beds readily. Some families have passed their seeds or cuttings down many generations. Gifts are spiritual ways to relate to each other.
Peter Griffiths is a mental health counsellor based in Prince Albert, Sask. His columns are intended as general advice only. His website is www.sasktelwebsite.net/petecope.
