Gardening in Collaboration with Nature

Winter’s loosened its greedy grip on spring, and spring’s begun flirting coquettishly with summer. At Rosslyn nature and gardens are awakening, beginning a steady sequence of transitions that will mesmerize and nourish us for the next six months. Inspired by this seasonal flux that’s just now beginning to gain momentum, today’s post is a meditation on gardening in collaboration with nature.

I’ll include several thought provoking excerpts from an article that caught my attention a year ago in Elle Decor of all places. Susan, a voracious omnivore when it comes to design magazines, hands on articles that she thinks will interest me. Written by Deborah Needleman and originally titled, “Conspiring with Nature” (Elle Decor, May 2024, pp. 37-8), the perspective immediately appealed to me. In virtually all respects it resonated familiarly, almost as if I might have written it myself. (Note: the online version, now retitled, “What Gardening Teaches Us About Ourselves”, is well worth a quick read!)

Each of the three passages that I would like to site speak for themselves. No need for me to pick and poke just to reiterate what Needleman has succinctly and artfully communicated. 

Gardening is what I do to wedge myself into the rhythms of nature, to attempt to become part of its vast drama. — Deborah Needleman (Source: What Gardening Teaches Us About Ourselves)

Amen! This idea of immersing oneself in ebb and flow of nature, of entering into a meaningful, curious, humble, and enduring relationship with nature captures my own perspective accurately. And she takes this relationship a step further. Collaboration.

A garden is a request we make to nature to collaborate with us. But we must go to it, observe it, and try to think as it does. — Deborah Needleman (Source: What Gardening Teaches Us About Ourselves)

A request indeed. Without hubris. Without stridency and arrogance. For we are the apprentice. It’s is our good fortune to wonder, to learn.

Part of nature’s perpetual perpetuating is of course the emergence of weeds… It is when you toss your weedy haul onto a compost pile that you are truly tapping into the genius of nature and its secret ways. The earth will take your trash and give you back gold—healthy, dark, rich, friable soil. You and nature are now partners in the making of your garden. — Deborah Needleman (Source: What Gardening Teaches Us About Ourselves)

This full circle thinking is in no small part the wisdom of nature. Beginnings are ends are beginnings. Today’s weeds, pruning, and leftovers are tomorrow’s compost. And tomorrow’s compost is next spring fertile soil.

Thank you, Deborah Needleman. And thank you, Susan, for bringing this to my attention.