Spring has represented new beginnings and growth more than usual this year. In just two short months Mum died, and Ian and I both had our first birthdays and Mother’s Day without her. It has brought ‘death’ much closer to the surface for me but also the importance, and gift, of life.
As the lambs gambol in the fields on their new wobbly legs, the birds hurry to build nests for new families and the splashes of lime green hawthorn leaves unfurl in the hedge rows, we are surrounded by new life, plans for new life and the promise of growth and blossoming.
One of the many things that I have learned in the last two months, is the importance of planning. There are always the most humbling parallels between gardening and life itself. Gardening teaches you to have faith, when you trust that the tiniest of seeds will develop into something fabulous, it teaches patience, we happily wait for newly planted fruit trees to bear fruit. And we know that it all has a natural cycle. What is growing healthily now will one day return to the earth and provide nourishment for the next growing season and soil dwellers. It really is quite remarkable and all too often overlooked.
Planning is key. If you don’t plan for the seasons and weather fluctuations - and predicable hiccups – then you will often miss out on harvests, flowers and ‘the fruits of your labour’. Soil care, pruning, sowing, planting, tying in, staking, mowing, and so many other gardening jobs, are all acts of ‘planning’. The garden centres were chocka block last weekend in the sunshine and with the promise of Easter around the cornier – all people who were planning!
For me, planning means to take action before you have to are forced to, having time and clear head-space to decide and choose how to do something.
Planning is also self motivating and reassuring in so far as you at least ‘feel’ you have more control of a situation. That’s another plus when nature will accelerate away from us all around the middle of May. I think as Easter is later this year, most gardeners will be lulled into a false sense of ‘control’ up until then. Be warned!
The act of planning and the awareness of death merged into an unexpected result for me recently. You will all know that Yogi, my best friend and wing dog of over 15 years is my absolute world. We have had some very scary moments in the last couple of years but she is still by my side providing unconditional love and the best kind of company. I am painfully aware that will not always be the case. And by way of the tiniest but meaningful compensation, I commissioned a ring to be made that contains her fur. It also contains the fur of her predecessor Tippy, and some of my own hair. The three of us will always be together in the most beautiful, solid titanium ring. Amy at www.footprintsandwhispers.co.uk made the whole experience an absolute pleasure, and Yogi still being here made it infinitely easier to do.
I believe the antithesis to planning is chaos, so I highly recommend taking time to think about the things you could make easier – and enjoy – by planning now, rather than let procrastination turn that privilege into possible painful pandemonium. Whether you are planning your work - and working your plan - in the garden or something closer to your own heart, remember Martin Luther King may have had a dream, but a plan is far better.