The Love of Gardening

June 28, 2021 — Pat Bertram

A friend sent me the following quote today: The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies, but grows to the enduring happiness that the love of gardening gives. ~ Gertrude Jekyll

I often think of something a bereaved woman told me back in my actively grieving days. She said she knew a woman who had lost everyone she had ever loved, but that woman was the most joyful person she had ever met. The woman was elderly, but still gardened. We marveled at the incongruity of the woman’s joy despite all her loss, but perhaps her secret to happiness was her love of gardening.

One of the many surprises of my current life is how much I have grown to love gardening. Even when the weeds take over, there is a certain satisfaction to clearing the area to make my plants pop into view. When they die, there is some satisfaction in learning a lesson, perhaps the plant is in the wrong place, I need to take better care, or I should just let it go and concentrate on the plants that are doing well. And there is a special joy in watering the garden areas by hand because it allows me to get acquainted with each plant, watch its progress, and enjoy any flowers that might bloom that day.

Today I had a special treat:

A squash blossom! The zucchini seeds I planted are flowering and perhaps someday I might even have a few zucchini to eat, but if not, the flower is a joy in itself.

I found some radish blossoms. Apparently, I didn’t find this radish in time to eat it.

There are also some petunia blossoms,

and more hollyhocks. The fence is five feet high, so you can see how tall the plants can get!

Several people have mentioned that they’d love to see my garden, but the truth is, you’ve seen it all. Every flower that has ever grown in my yard has been posted here, which makes it seem as if I have a lush garden. Some year I might, but for now, there is one flower here, one there, and another somewhere else. Still, I enjoy showing off my small successes to those who stop by, telling the story of each plant and sharing my newly found love of gardening.

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Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator