Change your life by being a gardener

The first garden I fostered was a green-bean plant on my patio of an apartment and my life changed forever. You can be a gardener anywhere.

I now steward a half-lot garden full of diverse life. We have berries, wild flowers, kale, sage (tons of sage), violet, trees, yarrow, squash, dill, wisteria, strawberries, rose of sharon,and almost all of our grass has been eliminated or slowly consumed by clover. This garden has been life changing.

While I was tending to a bed (I straight up dug up a spot in the soil with a shovel and my hands) to align my focus on arugula and tomatoes, when my neighbor came by. She is a skilled gardener who I have been lucky to have drop in with words of wisdom, support and company as I enter the third year of this garden. In the many times of doubt I have had with tending to this garden, my neighbor as reassured me that this is part of gardening. It is life changing to be believed in.

My neighbor noticed I didn't dig up a certain area of the bed and asked why. Here's what I said:

I noticed this being was thriving among the arugula. I don't know what it is, but I'm going to wait and see.

LIFE CHANGING. My neighbor mentioned she never thought of gardening like that before ( a seasoned veteran) and she said she likes gardening with me for these reasons (I'm a novice!). Not only can you be life changing for yourself, when you speak about it, you may change the life of someone else. Amazing.

I've always struggled with calling living beings "weeds" in the garden. They exist right before us and we get to decide their fate. What a responsibility and honor. I love being a host to all beings, which makes removal of any "weeds" almost impossible. I love waiting to see how these beings exist, even if that means I'll have them in my garden for years to come.

I've been stuck on the word "humility" for a bit. To think of yourself less. I think it can be life changing to noticed your surroundings, observe what's thriving, and practice patience to see the fruits and flowers. Practice a journalist mindset of what is the story of this being. How did this being get here? What do I need to do for it to stay here?

I hope you do that with the human beings, too.

Despite competition from surrounding milk weed and clover, this strawberry producing fruit with some less-than-perfect leaves is a practice of resilience.