Natural Connections - Spring in my Garden

Growing up I wasn't connected to nature through a garden, we didn't have one! My connection came through regular weekly walks up a long dusty road, past green fields and swaying corn dotted with poppies, until we reached the dark dappled sactuary of a nearby woodland. I still remember walking out of the bright sunshine and smelling the wonderful damp cool smell, as my eyes adjusted to the dancing light inside. The ground was spongy beneath my feel and I always felt that it was a place where magic could happen. Curling fronds of rich green ferns grew huge and abundant as we traipsed through the undergrowth, climbing over fallen trees and marvelling at the strange and wonderful fungi growing there.

"Listen to all the teachers in the woods.
Watch the trees, the animals and all living things
- you'll learn more from them than from books."
- Joe Coyhis

So gardens weren't a natural habitat for me, I liked my nature wild and untamed. I wanted to be an observer, appreciative and touched by its splendour. So when in recent years I inherited two mature gardens that came with each new home, I struggled. At first I left it completely alone to do its thing, then realised that with a garden that just wasn't an option - I had to get involved, so I did. My garden functions with minimum intervention from me, I care take, rather than garden, just enough to keep a little order. . .I look after what was already there and new things are welcomed as long as they are not too bothered by the slugs and snails! We have lots of them too. :-)

So one beautiful thing that I had missed before getting involved with a garden, was that I had never seen natures cycle up close. I had never been able to gain comfort from that ceaseless round of death and rebirth, my heart had never been lifted by seeing a bare branch begin to bud, or green tips burrowing up through dark earth. Now that I live alongside my garden, I am so grateful to be able to observe the new life and the start of yet another cycle.

"Spring - An experience in immortality." - Henry D. Thoreau

"Spring comes: the flowers learn their colored shapes." - Maria Konopnicka

"A piece of the sky and a chunk of the earth lie lodged in the heart
of every human being." - Thomas Moore

Photos - Spring Springing in my garden yesterday!