Gardening with Soule

Welcome spring, and welcome to you. Thank you for visiting my first blog entry on Gardening with Soule. My name is Teresa Soule, I work with shoes (soles), and I garden with soul. Thus the name… (Catchy don’t you think?) I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. There are probably a few other titles but you don’t need to know everything- not yet anyway. Among the many interests I have and things I do, gardening is at the top of my list. So when I was asked to write this blog, I jumped at the opportunity-(did I mention I like to talk?) Writing this has made me stop and really think about why I garden. What I have realized is that there are many reasons. The first of which is simply the beauty of flowers. I am constantly being amazed by the intricacy and detail present in each and every kind of flower and plant. The colors and distinctions from one to the next are mind-boggling. It is so wonderful to constantly be surprised to see yet another flower I haven’t seen before, then to see many different kinds blend together to create a garden. Now that is beauty! Whenever my grandmother was trying to choose the shades of yarn to use for an afghan she was planning to crochet, she would tell me, “Look to nature for complimenting colors. Mother Nature will never mislead you”. I think she was right.

Next I will say that there is something about being outside. The sights, the sounds, and seeing the effect that nature and weather has on my garden -humbles me. Whether it’s hot, windy, sunny, cold, rainy or cloudy, a combination is good while too much of any one element can sway the delicate balance that is needed to keep plants thriving. Of course we can influence the outcome by watering, fertilizing, protecting and planting strategically to make the most of our garden space and conditions that affect our plants, but it is nature and her strength that ultimately makes the biggest difference in the quality of our gardens.

Another perk of having a garden is the lesson of patience. Nothing happens quickly. You have to wait and nurture and wait, until one day the fruit, or the blossom, or the vegetable shows it’s pretty face and you realize that your hard work is paying off. There is nothing like the thrill of picking that first tomato or a beautiful bouquet of tulips in the springtime after a long winter. Patience. We need to have it in all aspects of our lives. Gardens teach it.

Another reason I am a gardener is speaking “flowers” with my friends. Discussing the plants and the best prices we have found gives us a new topic after a long hibernation indoors. Many fun days have been spent going to our favorite nurseries to choose our heart’s delights. Making a day of driving to our favorite place and perusing the green houses until we find the perfect plants, for just the right spots in our mental gardens that are soon to be. Doesn’t matter which friend I happen to be with, we just turn into flower junkies as soon as spring arrives.

For me, being in my gardens consumes me. There is always something to do. Usually I have one task in mind and before I know it, I am doing six others as well. It busies my mind as well as my body and that is what a perfect hobby or should I say passion, should do. It gives me a reason to work hard and enjoy the physical benefits of gardening like sweating (lovely), making muscles (yay!) and creating calluses (aren’t they great?) But it can’t compare to the mental paybacks it provides. It gives me time to think, time to wonder and time to remember.

Most of us have some memories that surround gardening. My childhood memories of gardening are limited to picking out marigolds with my grandmother to plant at the cemetery on Memorial Day, one small vegetable garden I planted and a few seeds and annuals that never amounted to much. It was when I met my future mother in-law that I really began to appreciate my interest in gardening. She had a true passion for growing and a vast knowledge to match. Although her space was limited in size, she filled it with flowers that everyone enjoyed. It was her front yard so neighbors and passersby often stopped to admire her collection of perennials that seemed to bloom endlessly inside her white picket fence. January usually brought the first spring catalogues to her door. (I didn’t have an appreciation of that thrill until many years later.) She would leaf through those catalogues anticipating springtime and choose her newest adventures for the garden she loved. As soon as her fledglings would arrive at the perfect time for planting, she would gingerly add them to her already prepared beds and nurture them to maturity. Her excitement was contagious and I caught the bug. She is the one who taught me the difference between perennials and annuals, bulbs and tubers, basically…she taught me how to garden. I never realized how much love went into it until I watched her in her yard and saw the pride she had when the fruits of her labors were there to be in awe of. Once we bought our first home she ordered plants for me and showed me the proper way to plant them as well as take care of the ones that came with the house. In the first few years it was her advice that kept my garden growing. It was the passing on of her knowledge and experience that gave me the confidence to take chances to try new plants, and enjoy the simple act of growing something just for the joy of it. Even though she is no longer with us, each and every time I am in my garden I am spending time with her.

When the first robin arrives on the scene and the geese are heard flying north overhead, my heart leaps at the possibilities waiting out in my small corner of the Earth. So, as the gardening continues I hope to enlighten you at times and hope to be enlightened by you. Everyone gains their own experience at gardening and I am a whole hearted believer that there is so much to learn from every person that puts spade to dirt in hopes that they will truly reap what they sow.

These are just a few of the things that have brought me here today.

Happy Gardening !

There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling.  ~Mirabel Osler