July 19, 2012

Garden Psychology: What Does Your Garden Say About You?

“Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.” Alfred Austin

Like our home’s interior, our gardens reflect our essential selves at truly ground level. What do our gardens say about us?

• Risk or safety (the gambler in us: new plants/planting early or late/marginally adapted plants)
• Trends or personal aesthetic (choosing best of each/adaptation?)
• Do own thing or go for approval  (from parents/neighbors/garden friends)
• Casual/natural or pruning warrior  (do your Felcos wear out in a week?)
• Garden art: subdued, dramatic, quirky, sentimental, bunny sculptures (?!)
• Colors (attraction or rejection)
• Straight lines or curves
• Sparse design or cottage garden spill (or a bit of both)
• Babying or tough love (all living things need tending; where do you draw the line?)
• Research to pieces or fall in love with a plant and get it?
• What do you ask Santa? Does it involve a truck?

All living things will throw us a curve. How do we manage our troubles and respect our success?

• Anger management (Why did it rain EVERYWHERE EXCEPT AT MY HOUSE?)
• When to fix a problem plant and when to compost  it
• Depression (drought/heat/extreme freeze/too many bugs/too much rain/rampant disease)
• Appreciation of accomplishments/obsessive self-critic/trying for magazine cover
• Learning from your mistakes or repeating them

Some gardeners are very precise in their jobs, but relaxed in the garden. Oh yes, that’s me!  I’ve run into obsessive plant movers, pruning maniacs, weather freaks (moi), and can you believe it, snobs?!

I just want to whack their turned up noses with some horticultural taxonomy that I probably can’t pronounce. Oops, I need some anger management!  Guess I’ll go pummel a stink bug. An Hempitera of some sort. . .!

But every gardener I’ve met has these qualities: curiosity, tenacity, creativity, and passion. Plants connect us to hope, anticipation, learning and nurturing.

In spring at a box store, I saw a woman carefully cradle her single little choice with such love and tenderness. I resisted my control freak urge to tell her that she was planting it way too early and it would probably rot. Because that’s where we all started: with dreams. And joy. And one little plant.

And I just bet that plant made it!

This week on CTG, we explore WHY we garden. Tom joins Billy Lee Myers, Jr. LMFT to analyze how our earthly connections enrich our souls and our relationships.

One concept Billy notes is our comfort zone. His friend, Jenn Miori, a musician with The Carper Family, contributed her insightful drawing. It certainly connects for me!

On Billy’s website, I’ve already read many of his articles that help me greatly with challenges in my life. Sometimes we need someone to help us turn around our perspectives.

As I developed this program, Rick Bickling, blogger at The How Do Gardener, sent me this humorous take on our troubles: The Five Stages of Garden Grief. Bet you’ve been there!

Continuing our garden psychology theme, Daphne explains how annuals contribute to our mood (and what an annual really means). Really, one sweet little plant can turn a buster day into a heavenly one, even in a patio pot.  And zinnias like this will improve your day with all the butterflies that nectar on them!

Daphne’s Pick of the Week is sweet potato vine, a perennial that is usually an annual for us. One of mine is in a pot set into—dare I reveal this—a bunny sculpture from It’s About Thyme. I even protected it over winter in my patio greenhouse to return to the bunny ASAP in spring.

Its vivid colors (chartreuse here, but it also comes in deep purple and other renditions) chases away the summertime blues.  It takes sun, though I love it to brighten up my psycho shady area as a spreading groundcover in summer to fill the space that perennial oxalis covers in cool weather.

Many of us fell in love with gardening when we harvested our first vegetables. This week, Trisha picks the cucumbers that work best for us and how to grow them. It’s not too late to find some cucumber love!

Get her growing tips, including how to assist pollination. And oh yes, you’ll want to try her summertime recipes that will get you past the grumps when it’s hot and sticky out there.

Trisha also explains that if you want to spray neem oil or spinosad to deal with cucumber pests, don’t use it while bees are active. These products will kill your pollinating bees if the leaves/flowers are still wet when they arrive. Apply when the bees aren’t active (like in the evening). Once the products dry, it’s safe for bees.

On tour, see how Kati & David Timmons found a new perspective when they turned an old yard into a garden of spirit. Minus grass, too.

Finally, bunnies Harvey and Gaby wanted me to share this with you. Thanks to “One Big Happy” Rick Detorie!

Okay, off to look for more bunny ornaments. Thanks for checking in and see you next week! Linda

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