It’s the spring equinox, when day and night are of equal length, and with the weather getting warmer I’ve been inspired to ramp up a whole variety of projects in my big, wild, garden.
There’s something about planting seeds, tending seedlings and harvesting produce and herbs that brings out the happy little kid in me and keeps the inspiration alive.
We are blessed with a very temperate climate, with no frost, so planting is risk free from quite early in the spring. By well before Christmas I hope to be harvesting garlic, potatoes (planted in the winter), tomatoes, carrots, chillies, capsicums, eggplants and zucchinis. Not to mention the huge quantities of perpetual spinach, parsley and other herbs we are already enjoying.
That’s just the vegie patch, and projects abound in the rest of the garden with transplants of non-thriving shrubs to different locations, dividing up big clumpy plants, mulching and a multitude of others.
My point in writing about this seemingly mundane, domestic adventure is that it helps to create and/or strengthen my connection to the earth and the natural cycles of the wheel of the year. I find the more I notice and align myself with these movements the more content I am, and the more success I have in the garden!
It also means that life follows a steady rhythm, linked to seasonal changes, that flows with ease and grace. Even though I don’t see very obvious seasonal changes in the vegetation, given our almost entirely evergreen environment, I find delight and comfort in observing the subtle changes in the plants, animals and birds, along with the differences in sun angle and day length. It’s a family joke that I run on solar energy, so it’s not surprising that I have lots more energy as we move from winter into spring, and it feels great to take advantage of that natural increase in enthsiasm.
If you are not in the habit of this quiet observation, why not give it a try for a few moments a day in coming weeks and start to feel yourself align with the primal rhythms of life. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
