Gardening... The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Do you view your gardening hobby as something that takes a little too much? It takes your time and it takes your money. Every spring you spend more than you budgeted to buy annuals or maybe you overspend on bulbs in the fall. Along the way you buy an overpriced bush or tree or statue that you really don't need. There are always nicer tools and more exotic flowers and new gardening methods to try.

Many of us spend our time and hard-earned money adding more and more things to the garden that we think will make it better. I suggest you take a look at the things you can take from the garden that will improve it more than you can imagine. Along with the blossoms and fruits, our gardens can provide us an endless supply of charity and friendship.

I'm blessed with a small group of very dear gardening friends. Yesterday I had the privilege of helping my good friend Della "clean up" her garden. Della has one of those yards that makes a neighborhood safer. How so? Because speeding cars slow down as they pass her house, as they admire the grasses and bushes and flowers and bask in the beauty of her landscape. She certainly didn't need my help because her burly, manservant (husband) Roger is always willing to work along side his love and add his magic in the gardens too.

Della allowed me to help her so that I might take some of her sage, creeper, daylilies, artemisia, penstemons, and veronica for transplanting in my garden. The impact of losing those plants in her manicured, well-established garden is barely noticeable, but the impact in my new, first-year beds will be huge. Della's charity adds a piece of her garden and, more importantly, a piece of her heart into my garden and my life.

One of my two-month-old garden beds

Another good friend, Diane, also allowed me to help her "clean up" her garden a few months ago. After adding hundreds of dollars of new bulbs, flowers, and bushes, to my expanse of newly-prepared garden beds, it still looked relatively bare and lifeless. Diane noticed and surreptitiously offered her castoffs of thyme, yarrow, knautia, Russian sage, brass buttons, and much more. They didn’t put a dent in her lavish gardens, but her gracious gifts gave my new garden substance and soul. And now a piece of her lives in my garden too.

In both cases, good friends helped another friend. They took a part of themselves and freely gave it away. We just happen to be gardeners and the vehicle for their caring was a variety of plantings, but for me it is much more. It's a sign of friendship and charity and a legacy of giving that can trace its path back to the earliest gardeners. In years to come when I share parts of my garden to old and new friends alike as I "clean up the garden", I'll know that I'm not only sharing a part of me but also a small part of Della and Diane and all the other gardeners who helped make me who I am.

As you clean up your garden and take plants from it, think about what you can give away. Everything you grow has some of your energy in it and when you share the plant you share that energy. As sharing and giving continues through the gardening community, your energy spreads. In a small way gardening gives us the possibility of immortality.

Those of us who love gardening and love to share our experiences and plants with our gardener friends are also sharing a gift of our love. Adding to your garden may help it look better, but taking the gift of love from your garden will help all of us feel better.

Do you view your gardening hobby as something that takes a little too much? It takes your time and it takes your money. Every spring you spend more than you budgeted to buy annuals or maybe you overspend on bulbs in the fall. Along the way you buy an overpriced bush or tree or statue that you really don't need. There are always nicer tools and more exotic flowers and new gardening methods to try.

Many of us spend our time and hard-earned money adding more and more things to the garden that we think will make it better. I suggest you take a look at the things you can take from the garden that will improve it more than you can imagine. Along with the blossoms and fruits, our gardens can provide us an endless supply of charity and friendship.

I'm blessed with a small group of very dear gardening friends. Yesterday I had the privilege of helping my good friend Della "clean up" her garden. Della has one of those yards that makes a neighborhood safer. How so? Because speeding cars slow down as they pass her house, as they admire the grasses and bushes and flowers and bask in the beauty of her landscape. She certainly didn't need my help because her burly, manservant (husband) Roger is always willing to work along side his love and add his magic in the gardens too.

Della allowed me to help her so that I might take some of her sage, creeper, daylilies, artemisia, penstemons, and veronica for transplanting in my garden. The impact of losing those plants in her manicured, well-established garden is barely noticeable, but the impact in my new, first-year beds will be huge. Della's charity adds a piece of her garden and, more importantly, a piece of her heart into my garden and my life.

One of my two-month-old garden beds

Another good friend, Diane, also allowed me to help her "clean up" her garden a few months ago. After adding hundreds of dollars of new bulbs, flowers, and bushes, to my expanse of newly-prepared garden beds, it still looked relatively bare and lifeless. Diane noticed and surreptitiously offered her castoffs of thyme, yarrow, knautia, Russian sage, brass buttons, and much more. They didn’t put a dent in her lavish gardens, but her gracious gifts gave my new garden substance and soul. And now a piece of her lives in my garden too.

In both cases, good friends helped another friend. They took a part of themselves and freely gave it away. We just happen to be gardeners and the vehicle for their caring was a variety of plantings, but for me it is much more. It's a sign of friendship and charity and a legacy of giving that can trace its path back to the earliest gardeners. In years to come when I share parts of my garden to old and new friends alike as I "clean up the garden", I'll know that I'm not only sharing a part of me but also a small part of Della and Diane and all the other gardeners who helped make me who I am.

As you clean up your garden and take plants from it, think about what you can give away. Everything you grow has some of your energy in it and when you share the plant you share that energy. As sharing and giving continues through the gardening community, your energy spreads. In a small way gardening gives us the possibility of immortality.

Those of us who love gardening and love to share our experiences and plants with our gardener friends are also sharing a gift of our love. Adding to your garden may help it look better, but taking the gift of love from your garden will help all of us feel better.