If you haven't caught on yet to the need to take some time out from the hustle and bustle and find some inner peace, you will regret it one day. Mindfulness helps you experience life fully. Food is tastier. Relationships are more engaging.
Mindful gardening is one of the best ways to calm your mind. It gives you the opportunity to stop and smell the roses. Your garden will be an oasis of peace and calm in a mad world. You’ll connect with nature, and gardening being a physical activity will release endorphins into your brain that make you feel happy.
- Design your garden mindfully
When planning your garden, you need to consider where all the different plants will go. Imagine in your mind how the garden will look once all the flowers bloom.
Will the colors clash? Will it be too much? If you want to walk around your garden and just rejoice in its beauty, will you have a path to walk on?
Plan it all on paper first. Set aside spaces for relaxing and reveling in your garden. You may wish to have a bench or a chair in the garden. Or a little nook where you can sit and meditate or read.
Or you can be like me and just wander around in pajamas and think about it.
- Awaken your senses
You may wish to have different species of plants that appeal to your different senses. It’s mostly about color. Choose plants with colors that you love. There are plants that will appeal to your sight such as blue passion flowers, lilies, sunflowers, roses, hibiscus, etc.
Then we have plants such as English Lavender, honeysuckle and peonies that smell great and appeal to your sense of smell. Did you know that plants have sound too? The way their leaves rustle when the wind blows is one example.
If your garden has a pond with lilies, you may have little frogs that make their home there and the sounds they make are all a part of your garden. If you can immerse yourself in these sounds, it can be a beautiful and refreshing experience.
There are plants and vegetables that will appeal to your touch and tastes senses too. Keep all these in mind when planning your garden.
We just planted things we know will grow here. Tomatoes and beets are our favorites to grow.
- Watch out for the wildlife
You want to be mindful of all the living creatures in your garden too. You’re aiming to have a little haven or sanctuary that resembles a mini-paradise. All the wildlife in your garden such as birds, bats, bees, etc. will complement your garden.
See what you’re doing. Feel it, smell it and experience it. Gardening is a very hands-on activity, and it can give you that mental break and peace that your heart and mind desires. Rejoice and play in the dirt because life is too short to have clean fingernails all the time.
There are a lot of flowers in the yard but they're perennials. Most of my gardening is vegetable gardening. This spring, I plan to create a herb garden in the sunroom.