The short answer is: because I have to. I can't stop myself from gardening.
Here's the long answer (you knew I wouldn't be able to keep it short):
Gardening is an act of defiance against a mechanized world that increasingly disassociates itself from nature. It's about nurturing life, plant, animal and human. It's about trying to compensate for the damage inflicted on our fragile, precious planet.
It's emotional therapy. Just wandering in the garden raises my spirits and heals my soul.
It's a connection to God, through the beauty of creation.
I can't paint, draw or sculpt, except in plants. The garden is my sculpture in a fourth dimension: time.
It's an act of faith in the future. Anyone who plants a tree is an optimist.
But more than anything else, I garden for the anticipation. Looking forward to something is always better than the reality of having that thing. With gardening there is always something for which to look forward. That's reason enough to go on living, even when I get old and frail.
This question was posed by Stuart as part of a Blotanical challenge. Click here
to visit Blotanical.
23 comments:
At times it also seems like an act in futility; assimilated by weeds. ;~)
Luckily there are plenty of people around the world who simply can't stop tehmselves from gardening. Our world wouldn't be the same without us gardeners, would it?
Katarina
I can't imagine not gardening.
Nice one MMD! Good luck in the competition :)
Very nicely said...gail
Good answer.
K
Couldn't of said it better myself! Great answer MMD!
Very well said, MMD. You speak for a lot of us. :-) Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
And I read your blog almost daily because you are charming and witty not to mention smart and grow beautiful flowers! I am forever grateful to you for helping us to cure bindweed.
That is a great answer. I can't keep anything short either, but I think it makes us more fun and easier to get to know. Now that you've written that, I have no idea how I could say it any differently. I feel compelled to, like I can't even think of not gardening. It's been a constant in my lifa and I couldn't imagine living without it. To me it's almost like breathing.
Hi MMD, love to read your take on things, and this is no different. Like many others, how could we not garden? It is a compulsion.
Frances
TC - but that's where the anticipation comes into it - imagining how the garden will be when it is weed-free. That it will never been weed-free means the garden will never be finished, giving the gardener more to do.
Katarina - the world is definitely a better place because of gardeners.
Kathy - when a friend & I went on a garden walk visit to an assisted living facility, we both blurted out "I want to end up in a place like this where I can still garden."
VP, Gail, Karen & PG - thanks! I'm not much of one for competition, but this gave me an excuse to get my philosophy clarified in my own mind by writing it down.
Shady - Thanksgiving was doubly busy w/ my son's birthday thrown in. And the great weather just demanded the putting up of the Christmas lights.
Cinj - we have too many ideas swirling around in our brains, but its a good thing. So is the impulse to garden.
Frances - usually a compulsion is something one seeks to cure, but this is the healthiest addiction or compulsion around. It's too bad the gardening bug isn't more contagious.
Very thought-provoking answer, MMD ... I'll be pondering it today as I'm outside. In the garden. Gardening. For all your reasons and a few of my own.
Beautifully said, MMD! I had thought about participating in this, but everyone's answer I've read so far is so thoughtful and has summed up my feelings far better than anything I could say.
Like you, I can't paint or draw--gardening is my one way of fulfilling my artistic vision.
Oh, that's great--esp. the short part. I've forgotten who confessed to weeding store garden plots, but I've done that too. It's like a compulsion.
--Kate
Anna - you're welcome for the Bindweed killing method. I just want everyone to be happy with their gardens.
Cindy - I wish I could be outside gardening too, but the closest I'm going to get for a while is a date with a snow shovel.
Rose - it must be true that all ornamental gardeners are artists at heart.
Kate - I don't think I've publicly confessed to that, but I have done it.
I like the anticipation reason. That's the main thing for me too. Plus, the fact that I really do like to sit in my garden, and I create it as a place to be.
I love both the short answer and the long answer, MMD, and agree that the anticipation is very important. And I like your take on defiance as not just daring to grow things in the face of destruction but as a refusal to disassociate from nature.
No wonder your blog is so wonderful! Both blog and garden spring forth from your motivations.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Congrats fellow prize winner!
I enjoyed reading your answer, MMD, and especially love your short answer. It certainly is a compulsion, but a healthy one :)
Creating and anticipating the beauty is a continuing joy.
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas.
Congrats MMD. Just read about the prize. Wish you a wonderful Christmas!
Yes, congratulations! I identify with your reasons for gardening. Well written! (I was trying to avoid these until writing mine, but I had lost the number of words you were supposed to use, so I just did my own thing.)
Sue,
A Corner Garden
Congratulations! I just read about the prize and had to come by to see what reasons other gardeners have to garden. Glad to find that your reasons are the same as mine. Only, you expressed it in a much nicer way than I ever could have.
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