When It's Time To Weed And Prune

My, oh my, where has the summer gone? You'd think we'd all been out and about, traveling here and there, when in reality many of us have spent the summer turning our yards and gardens into "staycation" paradises, or as close as we can get to it. For those of us who don't even have a yard but must depend on our tiny container and tabletop gardens, we've been just as busy trying to be ever so creative and to not only think outside the box but create a whole new box to boot. However, no garden, regardless of how big or tiny, can get away without a whole lot of love, attention and, when needed, some serious, sometimes ruthless, weeding, dead-heading, and pruning. A tiny tabletop garden is no exception.

Over the last two weeks I've had to seriously prune back my herbs, saving some to dry and use in cooking, and taking some cuttings to start new plants. I've had to dead-head my begonias and impatiens, and, believe it or not, actually weed my pots. I use an organic potting mix that has compost in it and it is not unusual for me to be pulling clover out from around the bottom of my rosemary and spearmint. Just like any other garden, if you don't pull them out when they first show themselves, they will take over your garden as well as your pot. Sometimes I think people who don't garden don't understand the time and attention it takes to grow something not only beautiful but healthy as well.

Our gardens of life require just as much time and attention to weeding, dead-heading and pruning as our nature gardens do. We all have some nasty weeds - old habits and past beliefs that we thought we'd weeded out but that keep coming back - that need to be pulled out as soon as they pop up again. When we feel days just going on and on, one after the other but with no sense of growth, that's the time to prune from the top, pinching off the topmost growth to encourage side shoots to spread out and send their energy into growing more fruit or flowers - the rewards of living a life with passion and purpose. And, of course, when something that worked before is no longer working and, in a sense, is dead to us, that's the time to dead-head with great abandon and send our energy into new growth and new opportunities to thrive.

I've always been a fan of finding connections between the natural world and our own lives (hence the purpose of this blog), but if there is one lesson I've learned from old Mother Nature, it's this: the work you put in now will reap great rewards in the future. All that back-breaking work will be worth it when you sink your teeth into that first, juicy tomato, or cut that first beautiful rose to take indoors and enjoy. So, too, will all that work you put into tending your garden of life be worth it when you wake up one day and realize: What a glorious day to be alive!

And so it is.