New Year's Resolutions

I don't make personal New Year's resolutions anymore.  I used to, but I never was very good with the whole self discipline thing, so my "new and improved" habits didn't tend to last much more than a couple of weeks or a month.  Maybe two.

In more recent years, I found myself making mental promises (okay, resolutions) to remember to do all-the-things-you-should-be-doing-in-your-garden-at-the-proper-time... not for my own garden, but for Elizabeth Lawrence's, of which I was primary caretaker from November 2010 through March 2024.

I must admit that I did a better job of keeping those resolutions than any I'd made for myself personally, but there were always tasks that fell through the cracks or were forgotten.  For a long time, I carried the foggy weight of guilt of those discarded good intentions.  That is, until I read this:

"This January, I have added a new resolution to the old promises to get behind my garden sins; the new one is to take time to enjoy my garden.  It has been a long time since I sat in it with a book that I didn’t read, and never gave a thought to weeds or watering or plants overgrown by other plants.  I have always found it hard to reconcile a resolution to do nothing with one to do everything and do it ahead of time, but I used to find it easy to put my sins and negligences out of my mind.  This year I am going to try to recover the talent for leaving things undone."

This quote comes from Elizabeth's article "It is Time for Resolutions!" from the Charlotte Observer, published Sunday, January 1, 1961.  

A weight was lifted when I read that for the first time.  Even the woman who is listed among the top 25 gardeners of all time struggled with staying on top of her own gardening schedule!  After that, I never felt as guilty when I forgot to put out bulb fertilizer in her garden before mid-January, or let the cherry laurels go too long before clipping, or let the weeds in the paths begin to go to seed, or allowed her smilax over the front door to grow up over the gutter...  

I did stick to one thing, however.  At least once each week, if not once each day, I took time to sit and enjoy her garden.  It was more often than not in those brief moments that I witnessed the quiet magic of that space, and felt the sparkle of her energy in the green things growing around me.  I feel a spark of that magic and energy in the propagated bits of plants I have of hers in my own garden, and am eager to see them grow and (hopefully!) thrive here.  

So even though I don't make New Year's resolutions, this year I, too, am going to try to recover the talent for leaving things undone... and not feel guilty about taking time to truly enjoy my garden.

One of my favorite little bulbs from Libba's garden, Galanthus elwesii (snowdrop) greets the New Year.  No bulb fertilizer needed.

Happy New Year, everyone!  May the year find you with soiled knees and dirty fingernails, and enjoying every minute in your garden.

Until next time, I remain...

Yours in dirt,

Andrea