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Garden Gate:  What Gardens Teach Me  |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
 Posted - Jul 01 2006 : 3:21:25 PM
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what 'lessons' have you learned from gardening?
things that surprize me the most about gardening is the SURPRIZE element of what does and does not come up .. and the PATIENCE gardens teach .. oh .. and i definitely have to add the PLEASURES of touching all five senses that gardens do.
what you YOU learned? xo
True Friends, Frannie
My KENTUCKY RAMBLINGS 'blog':
http://cabincreekfarm-kentucky.blogspot.com/ |
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santa_gertrudis_gal
True Blue Farmgirl
198 Posts
Kim
Groesbeck
Texas
USA
198 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2006 : 3:34:09 PM
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Frannie,
I think you have hit the nail on the head. I also think gardening has taught me structure, the changing of the seasons, and the chores that go along with those seasons. Here I can garden year round. There is just such a wonderful feeling to have the structure the farming/ranching life gives to me.
Kim
Heaven is a day at the ranch with my Santa Gertrudis! |
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Mumof3
True Blue Farmgirl
3890 Posts
Karin
Ellenwood
GA
USA
3890 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2006 : 4:24:32 PM
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Gardening has taught me that I am not in control of anything but myself. I am just an assistant, plain and simple.
Karin |
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DaisyFarm
True Blue Farmgirl
1646 Posts
Diane
Victoria
BC
Canada
1646 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2006 : 5:43:37 PM
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I've learned lots of things from gardening, but the first thing I've come to realize is that all gardeners are optimists!
I've also been humbled and have come to realize how fragile and precious our topsoil is, and how it too must be nurtured just as the plants it grows are.
Di |
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abbasgurl
True Blue Farmgirl
1262 Posts
Rhonda
USA
1262 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2006 : 10:40:06 PM
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I think I'm always amazed at the variety & complexity of creation. Ever look closely at the "throat" of a foxglove blossom? I also see that God is a God of order, and imagination and humor. And I love that plants are sometimes so resilient. It surprises us to see where they pop up! Of course for those of us in the North there is always Springtime & new beginnings-a reminder for me of Christ's resurrection.
Blessings,
Rhonda
...and I will sing at the top of my lungs, and I will dance, even if I'm the only one! |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Jul 01 2006 : 10:42:43 PM
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Gardens for sure teach me patience, and I am never failed to be amazed by carrot seeds...so tiny...like a grain of sand..and yet...a couple months later a big old carrot!! I love to see that same amazement in my kid's eyes. What a wonder this earth is!!
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
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westernhorse51
True Blue Farmgirl
1681 Posts
michele
farmingdale
n.j.
USA
1681 Posts |
Posted - Jul 02 2006 : 04:49:07 AM
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for me also it's PATIENCE, I am not a patient person by any stretch of the imagination. Also it's the gift of nurturing, I love to nurture and sometimes people don't want it (like your teenage daughter) and I can't really drive my flowers and hefbs crazy w/ it.
she selects wool and flax and works with eager hands Prov.31:13 |
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asnedecor
True Blue Farmgirl
1054 Posts
Anne
Portland
Or
USA
1054 Posts |
Posted - Jul 03 2006 : 08:26:48 AM
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Gardening keeps me in touch with my farmgirl side. It also keeps the memory of my grandmother alive for me. I have plants she gave me starts from and little labels on things for the garden that she wrote - like the container for epsom salt to make green tomatoes ripen. When I save things for the compost, like egg shells and banana peels I can hear telling me what plants they are good for.
This is also something I share with my mother, who also provides me with plant starts and we swap. So my garden is a kinda scrapbook so to speak. It teaches me about how precious life can be and hold on to your memories. Also my garden has taught me to be neighborly, I swap with my neighbors, we talk about plant problems, varmits and critters in the garden etc. We share our abundance of produce and we politely prune when things grow a bit too far over the fence.
It has also taught me to let go of stress - that everything won't always be perfect, there will always be some weeds, plants that don't grow right and things that will come up that you didn't expect. Just go with the flow.
Anne
"Second star to the right, straight on till morning" Peter Pan
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Edited by - asnedecor on Jul 03 2006 08:27:29 AM |
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Luzy
True Blue Farmgirl
922 Posts
Luanne
Pueblo
Colorado
USA
922 Posts |
Posted - Jul 03 2006 : 11:27:40 AM
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For me gardening is a way to stay connected to my family that has past. My Dad loved snowball bushes (hydrangeas) sp?, my Mom loved roses and iris, Grandpa loved trees. I try to have a little something to care for to remind me of them. Most of my family has passed on, so it's comforting to have something of them still around.
I am also so amazed that a little seed packet can produce such wonerful things!! Even little lettuce seeds gets me all excited!!
I also love the seasonal aspect of gardening. I enjoy the crisp days of Fall cleanup and bulb planting, Wintertime looking through the seed catalogs, and Springtime planting!!! It's ALL good!! Luzy
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May I always be the kind of person my dog thinks I am. |
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Annab
True Blue Farmgirl
2900 Posts
Anna
Seagrove
NC
USA
2900 Posts |
Posted - Jul 06 2006 : 11:53:11 AM
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Gardens have taught me: patience,- there is no rushing a seedling to harvest That the old gramma and her watching the moon phases for planting are nearly always correct, I should stick to my day job and keep farming as a fun hobby, not a livelihood to stress and fret over, whenever the weeding is caught up, it's going to rain it's a cheap thrill to start with bare ground and see what has progressed by August "earthy people" are to be respected- especially the organic farmer....it's tougher than it looks! warm soil feels good to grub in- no matter your age! it's not just "by chance"
God has a sense of humor! |
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Celticheart
True Blue Farmgirl
811 Posts
Marcia
WA
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 2:48:13 PM
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Patience was the first thing that came to mind. For me, gardening is certainly a lesson in patience. And perserverance. I had a flower bed at our old house that it took 15 years to get right. It became a thing of beauty that amazed me every year.
Gardening is also something that connects me to both the past and to the future. All of my grandparents were farmers of one sort or another and my grandma's were all avid gardeners, as is my mom. Now I see my kids, especially the girls, carrying this on. I've always been a gardener(not always successfully;) but I never forced my kids to help and somehow they seem to have absorbed most of what they saw. They are telling me it must be genetic.....lol. Whatever it is, I hope it will continue.
Marcia
"I suppose the pleasure of country life lies really in the eternally renewed evidence of the determination to live." Vita Sackville-West
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Garden Gate: What Gardens Teach Me |
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What Gardens Teach Me
