It seems the fabulous Florida fall weather may be just around the corner! While it has been a rainy week in general, the heat and humidity that is typical of Florida summers has definitely broken and this weekend’s weather has been spectacular! It is the time of year when I am doing lots of pruning, trimming, and assessing my gardens. As I usually do in the fall, I am now trying to get my cooler weather gardens planted. Tomatoes, peppers, green beans, and of course, filling in the herbs that did not survive the oppressive heat and daily rains of June, July, and August.
Was so glad that last week I invested those hours of yardwork, as this weekend we had family and friends over, and I love that they can enjoy the outside areas. It was our turn to host the monthly family dinner, and as luck would have it, our dear “friends-who-are-like-family” were down here on vacation, so they joined us. We were a big group of 13.
While enjoying the lanai, the yard, and the grotto this weekend, I realized that in many ways, gardening is very much like writing.
- As gardeners, we plant seeds in hopes that they will grow and blossom. As writers, story ideas may start as a simple sentence or a single character, and the hope is that with nurturing, it can grow into a poem, or picture book, or novel.
- As gardeners, we must be patient with the process. As writers, things can’t be rushed. Our ideas and words must unfold and grow at their own pace.
- As gardeners, we must pay attention to the conditions in order to get the best result. As writers, we know that not all pieces of writing require the same preparation and planning.
- As gardeners, we know that there are sometimes surprises. The full grown plant may not be at all what we expected when we started. As writers, we know our completed piece may be more beautiful than we expected, or more dreadful than we can stand.
- As gardeners, we know that sometimes you just have to pull up the mistakes and start over. As writers, we know that revising and rewriting is critical and sometimes things need to just be cut out.
- As gardeners, we enjoy sharing the beauty of our blooms or the bumper crop of limes. As writers, we passionately share the fruits of our labors with our readers.
- As gardeners, we are eternally optimistic. No matter how bad this year’s crop, we know that there is always next year. As writers, we are also optimistic beyond reason. We believe that our next project will be the most spectacular one yet!
As Marcus Tillius Cicero said, “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
#growinggardens. . . .
