The Zen of Gardening: Six Life Lessons Learned

For anyone who has fallen in love with gardening, you understand the meditative flow, or zen, one can experience amidst a quilted patchwork of sun-soaked shrubs and blossoms.

As many of you know, I have been regularly volunteering at a community garden. Aside from the relaxing and therapeutic experience of growing my own food, the garden has much to teach, if one is open to learn.

From seeing my role in the garden ecosystem among the host of other lifeforms necessary for a healthy crop, to the experience of letting go when a well loved and long cared-for plant has withered.

If you are skeptical about gardening, I’d like to share with you six lessons I’ve learned from the garden, that have helped me in my personal life. Perhaps you too can experience the zen of gardening.

1. Creation requires nurturing.

A growing plant not only needs love, it needs nurturing. It needs you to be engaged, to listen to what it wants, for every flower has slightly different needs. Water, but not too much or too little. A touch of compost when seeding, no more.

Similarly, people need nurturing in order to blossom. You and I want our quirks and strengths to be known, loved, and accepted. Our creative endeavours need encouragement, sensitivity, and understanding in order to manifest and thrive. Each one of us needs something a little different: one needs more encouragement and another more solitude.

2. Letting go of attachment.

Every gardener knows that plants will die sometimes, and that’s just the cycle of life. Sometimes you and your plants win, and sometimes Nature takes an unfavorable course.

While we try to prevent catastrophe from happening, sometimes they are inevitable. It is simply a part of the natural ebb and flow of life. Nature is unpredictable. Because we depend on nature for food and life, we must learn to accept that setbacks will inevitably occur. It will do no good to latch onto every setback in pity and woe.

Recognize the pain of such a setback – an inner mourning for the death of a cherished herb, much like the mourning for the death of a previous life. Recognize it, then encase it and let it go.

There is only forward to go, and new adventures to be nurtured to blossom.

3. There is only one universal constant: change.

You were once a different person, like a small seed. Now, with ample and timely watering, light, and nutrients, you have grown from seed to blossom. One day, your life too, will wither into the soil, to nourish a multitude of new lives.

Your friends will come and go, your passions may change. Some will come to you often, others will visit briefly. You will want to make tangible changes in your life, and you will likely encounter discomfort and resistance.

Recognize and accept that change will happen – the environment changes, people change, culture changes, and you too will change. Recognize and accept that with change comes uncertainty and resistance. If you have a set vision and an open path, if you can accept change as a positive force in your life, it will be a much smoother transition.

4. Interdependency.

The garden is an ecosystem. The plants need you to water and de-bug them, but they also need a healthy soil ecosystem. Therein lies a network of fungi, insects, and micro-organisms, all working to provide the plant with sufficient nutrients, anti-biotic defense, and enhanced water drainage in the soil. You are the master gardener, but you also need diversity.

Similarly, each of us needs our community – we depend on others for food, shelter, and love. Perhaps we grew up thinking there were groups of people we would not associate with. Consider that they might do work you depend on today, or someday in the future.

We also need our biodiversity, our non-human community. Forests give us clean air and water, and also enhance soil fertility. A diverse plant life provides sources of new pharmaceuticals and new foods. Microbes decompose organic matter, insects pollinate crops, and small animals control pest populations.

We also gain spiritual and intellectual inspiration from natural settings, as well as recreation and outdoor adventure.

5. Failure is the path to success.

Every gardener knows your first few attempts to grow living plants will most likely fail. But it’s okay, because you’ll start to figure it out after a few failures. That’s where the learning happens and experience is acquired.

Everything you want to do in life can be boiled down to this. If you want to succeed, you will likely fail on your way. Learn to recognize and accept the feeling of failure. It is not that bad. Treat it as a learning experience. Next time you’ll try things differently, or ask for help.

6. Zen.

Spending time working in the garden is extremely meditative. Planting and harvesting are the most exciting aspects of working in the garden. The other tasks – pruning, chopping branches and stems for compost, preparing new beds, weeding – are all very relaxing.

While chopping down long branches and stems, I am sent into a trance. Glowing sunshine fills my body, a soft breeze kisses my arms, and the repeating ‘click click‘ of my shears pervades my body and mind with peace and warmth. What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon?

As gardener you are a facilitator to nature’s cycle of harnessing sunlight for energy, growing food to nourish your body and soul. The food will eventually be returned to the soil, completing the cycle, and providing fertilizer for future crops.

Gardening is one of the best ways to experience a connection with nature, as you are actively engaged in the creation of life.

You can simply exist, to do simple tasks, and nature will reward you with ample food. What are we left with when we pare down our complex modern lives to the essentials for satisfied living? Food, shelter, love.

If you found this post helpful, please share it with your friends. And do follow me on Twitter. Thanks for reading!

*Photo by EJ Sabandal