Where Art Meets Earth
‘I have never had so many good ideas day after day as when I worked in the garden.’
~John Erskine
‘Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden.’
~Robert Brault
‘There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder.’
~Alfred Austin
‘The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.’
~Dorothy Frances Gurney, “Garden Thoughts”
Gardening has been a kaleidescope of growing experiences for me in the thirty years since I was first invited to plunge my once well manicured hands into the soil. I’ve known and experienced the joys, delights, surprises and silent awe moments of wonder as well as the deep disappointments, dismays and heartache of realizing that a favorite would not be returning again. It is one of the most forgiving palettes to grow one’s creative life potential and expression from the inside out. An idea shows up and once I put into practice it unfolds into 3D. I love it and the bringing of it all together. The ‘Click’ moment. It just feels right.
I sincerely believe it is because of the way I was allowed to learn in the beginning; by jumping in and working with the earth one on one with Nature as my only teacher and without another soul around to say otherwise, I was able to do and try anything I wanted to create without knowing I couldn’t or that it wouldn’t work. Working in and with Nature grew my confidence in different ways by the doing of the practical work and then by understanding through the learning process and growing along with the plants. An added benefit was that I found myself growing from the inside through the having of this amazing experience. It is a passion that was struck like a match in me and a passion that I continue to explore and engage in, an ongoing desire to create the vast possibilities available and felt from my heart filled space in joy expressing through creative playing in my garden.
It was this very feeling of joy that I really desired to share with my clients and staff while I owned and operated my own Landscape Design and Installation business for seven years. Connecting the Inside with the outside. Making it flow together. I truly desired to share my love, joy and passion through the outflowing of ideas by sharing it with others and giving them a sense of what can happen by the transformation of one’s stressful and static inner state into a peaceful, restful one by being and working within Nature.
My logo was and still remains; Where Art Meets Earth.
It is Art from the Heart expressing its beauty.
Now, I am able to share this more easily through writing and sharing from my own playing in the garden along with the joys of discovery that await us everyday if we remain in a childlike state of wonder .
My humble beginnings in the garden began at age nineteen with an unexpected invitation delivered via a brown paper sack. I’ve never regretted accepting that invitation. All I was asked to do to R.S.V.P. was just show up. The party is still going on, no end in sight.
I have found that by keeping my hands in the earth, keeps me grounded.
Come grow with me, the best is yet to be………..
Welcome to my Art Meets Earth Garden. I hope you will be inspired along with me.
Blessings and Joy,
Julia
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November 2008
Autumn, Fall; Season of the Sifting and Sorting of the Harvest
‘Autumn is a second spring when ever leaf is a flower.’
~ Albert Camus
‘A September to remember.
An October of Splendor.
A November to treasure.’
~ La Prevenchere, Brittany, France, Entertaining Angels
“Smoke hangs like haze over harvested fields,
The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth
And you walk under the red light of fall
The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain
The sharp, gentle chill of fall.
Here as we move into the shadows of autumn
The night that brings the morning of spring
Come to us, Lord of Harvest
Teach us to be thankful for the gifts you bring us …”
~ Autumn Equinox Ritual
Ahh! Fall, autumn, whatever name you give to this season of the harvest.
The crisp cool air of early morning and late evening refreshes me. Feeling a new burst of energy, I am ready to throw off the drowsy blanket of the passing dog days of summer. Its jeans and sweater weather, a let’s get busy energy feeling.
Let the sifting and sorting begin. Keeping only what is of value (beneficial and useful) in this moment and letting the rest blow away. It is the process of reaping the fruits (the benefits) of what has been sown by discernment or choosing. Bring into your barns and storehouses the bountiful results of your seed planting cycle, for the season of resting is upon us and these fruits will sustain you through winter’s resting.
For now, it’s about being outside! Reviewing the garden or simply, it’s time to get organized.
Fall brings the perfect opportunity to walk through your garden and inspect your beds. Take your camera along and whatever areas you truly heart enjoyed, take a photograph of as well as those areas that you are still growing in and may have ideas popping up on how to redesign them.
A garden ideas, notebook is helpful in recalling the changing creative plans you desire to make. Maintain your photographs along with your notes.
Note: Do not be concerned about knowing exactly the how or what you want to do right now; there is ample opportunity to envision new ideas when you are in the midst of the resting winter respite.
That said here is a simple list of ideas to assist you in the fall organizing rituals to allow yourself to be pre - pared for the busy spring season in advance:
Clean out your annual beds and containers if they look spent. Throw the spent blooms into your beds or dry them and place into labeled envelopes for seeding in the spring. Fall blooming flowers such as mums, asters and pumpkins are abundant in the plant selling nurseries now and it is very easy to brighten up areas with renewed color. Create a compost area to contain your spent plants and their leavings. Once you build up your compost, you will be able to add it to your upcoming season’s plantings.
Gather up the extra bags of potting soil, compost, etc. and place them in a designated sheltered area. Cover them with a tarp or clear painters plastic if an enclosed space is not available.
Gather up any and all tools left about the garden and store them in an easy to locate and access area.
Go through your pots and containers; keep the usable ones and toss the ones which have out served their purpose. While I agree with recycling, there is a point where you have to be honest about the pot that’s been sitting around with three sides missing and unused for quite a while. Let it go. There will be others.
Include your children pulling a wagon and go through your yard and pick up branches, rocks, toys, etc.
I have found autumn to a beneficial season to weed your beds and turn the soil. Cut back your seasons perennials unless you enjoy the look of the dried flowers and flower heads. Fall is my first choice as the best time to divide and transplant spring blooming perennials. If you are not sure of where you would like to plant them, just separate them and plant them around the host plant you are dividing until you decide where they will go. Water them in well.
Only keep the parts of a lawn you wish to upkeep. Leaf fall will remove a lawn if allowed to sit there. Raking can be turned into a family activity. Raking onto a small tarp and using it as mulch as well as composting is a great way to make what can be a big task, a manageable one. This is our moment to begin to enjoy the benefits of another growing cycle we have just grown through.
Once the days begin to drop in temperature along with the suns position in the sky, I’ve noticed that watering ones outside plants goes right out the window. I have yet to notice a plant doing well by going six months without water.
Begin deeply watering your plants especially the newly established ones this year during the cooler fall weather until freezing. Allow the plants to get a soaking and then repeat. Once or twice a week will reward you with strong and deeply rooted longer living plants. If you are experiencing a dry winter then I highly recommend that you water your plants, especially evergreens and broadleaf evergreens during the days of winter that reach above 40 degrees.
Autumn is a great season of the year to plant spring bulbs, shrubs and trees, subscribe to garden magazines, newsletters and request catalogs for the upcoming season to be enjoyed throughout winter’s season of resting.
Speaking of cooler weather and after exerting energy in the garden, one’s thoughts may naturally turn towards sustenance.
For me, fall is a time to bring to the table food that warms the bones and the heart.
I like to match the memory smells while outdoors on a cool and bracing autumn day.
Interwoven in autumn’s breezes are the smoky smells of burning leaves, along with the aromas of my neighbor’s dinners soon to be eaten and the scent of cinnamon is being baked into goods that someone will be enjoying after a hearty meal. Mmm … a life is good feeling.
Peaceful and tucked in.
Here is a simple but delicious vegetable medley that my family enjoys especially during the fall and winter seasons.
~ Vege Medley ~
2 medium sized golden potatoes, rinsed and cut into medium sized cubes, leave skin on
2 or 3 stalks each of broccoli and cauliflower divided into bite size pieces
1 or 2 carrots diced into 1/4 inch pieces
Place all into a steamer and once the water begins to release steam, set the timer for 7 minutes and remove.
Dress it with anything you like, Italian dressing, some like Ranch dressing.
InJoy ~
In closing, fall, autumn is symbolic of shedding. Shedding of the old to make room for the new. Gathering the True seeds of my choosing through the process of discerning, sifting and sorting. Now tucked away in a safe place throughout the resting season patiently awaiting the arrival of spring, the season of the new birth.
I encourage you while in the doing of these things to take some moments to pause and wonder at the joy this moment contains.
You may begin to discover a deeper and more growing sense of satisfaction in being a part of this cycle of life.
Another cycle is complete.
Many Blessings, Be Well and InJoy this day,
I appreciate you,
Julia
May 3rd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Luther Burback was his name,
with plants and flowers he wrote the game.
So here we have Julia, doing the same.