Cultivating Creativity Through Gardening
Welcome!
Unsure where to channel your creativity?
Do you believe in a myth that you have no creativity?
Want to add more spark to your life?
Read on
Cultivating Creativity
Through Gardening
I come from a family of farmers, and, in fact, my great-grandpa was one of the first farmers in Indiana to own a tractor. However, my uncle was involved in a horrific accident, and after his leg was amputated on the kitchen table with no anesthesia, my great-grandpa got rid of the tractor. He then became the last farmer in the county to use the horse and plow.
Farming was and is a tough life. Weather rules. Hornets swarm. Days begin before dawn and end with eyes too tired to track a tiger. But living off the land gets in your blood.
My dad was a businessman, but he also tilled a vegetable garden, fought off squirrels, and sprayed fruit trees. He kept files full of garden plans and recorded the plants that succeeded and those that did not. He gardened until the day he died. My dad was not a patient man, and although he loved his plants, he loved the challenge gardening gave him even more. He learned lessons in patience and the magic of growth. I’d catch him leaning on a hoe and staring at the sky. Gardening calmed him.
I understand how he felt. When I tend to my garden, I find the same sense of focus and wonderous awe of nature. I am more present. Spoiler alert— this is how I feel when I create art, write words, shoot photos, or make soup.
Gardening is a highly creative act. Like most art forms, it involves imagination, experimentation, and personal expression. Some gardeners plant seeds with colors in mind. Others arrange gardens according to size and textures.
For me, it has taken a lot of trial and error to learn what grows best in the Colorado Rockies. Living at nine thousand feet is not conducive to lovely tropical blooms or old growth feathered ferns, but like with art, I’ve learned my medium. And if I do say so, I grow a fabulous poppy and a mighty mean monkshood.
A garden reflects a person’s personality just as a book reveals an author’s voice. Although I appreciate gardens with cultivated symmetry, and I enjoy long, lined pathways that are trimmed and pruned, what I really love is a garden like mine: slightly overgrown, wild and free.
Are you convinced of the connection between creativity and nature? I hope so. Get outside and grow a garden. If you have no outside, plant a seed in a cup. Notice what happens. Do ideas begin to flow? Is your imagination sparked? Do you feel a certain sense of zen?
Let me know. And enjoy the journey.
Quotes for the Soul!
“Trees and plants always look like the people they live with, somehow.”
“When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden.”
“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece. ”
“The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.”
Remember
If you need help developing a creative practice, I’m available as a creative coach.
Bonus Free Gift.
Email me a question or creative topic that interests you, and I’ll mail you an original spirit card.
Thanks for reading. Creativity is not a command performance, but I hope you’ll stay and become inspired. If you know someone interested in creative endeavors, please forward this on!
Yours in spirited creativity,