Blogging and Bee Balm, Words and Wisteria...

— Blogging and Bee Balm, Words and Wisteria? —

Blogging and Bee Balm, words and wisteria, computers and coneflowers, editing and echinacea?

What exactly do writing and gardening have in common? Besides the fact that I find joy in both, the more I write and the more I garden, the more similarities I find.

Both creative outlets begin with a blank page. Writers subconsciously see an article in everyone they meet while gardeners intuitively envision newly designed gardens in areas where there is nothing but weeds. Like our Creator God, who created the heavens and the earth and everything in it ‘ex nihilo’ (from nothing,) we are created in His image and have an innate desire to create.

When given a blank page, whether in writing or gardening, a crucial commonality is the big “C.”

My friend Merriam Webster defines the word Cultivate:

1. to prepare or prepare and use for the raising of crops; also : to loosen or break up the soil about (growing plants)

2. a : to foster the growth of

c : to improve by labor, care, or study : refine

3. further, encourage

Cultivating

1) How do I cultivate the soil or prepare it for raising hostas? I till, then amend my clay soil with peat moss, add green sand, an organic fertilizer, and mulch around each plant — I nourish my plants with the nutrients and the water they need to flourish.

Similarly in writing another article, I sift my past experiences, add good books, go to yearly writer’s conferences for motivation, attend monthly writer’s group and keep deadlines to keep me encouraged and on schedule. — I nourish my mind with the stimulating nutrients (and mugs of tea) I need to flourish.

Fostering Growth

2) How do I foster the growth of my hostas? Sometimes fostering growth means protecting my plants from water-stealing weeds, slugs and insects that eat hosta leaves or even family dogs that enjoy sleeping on top of my new Empress Wu hosta plants.

Fostering growth in my writing also means protecting my mind from time-stealing electronic media and everyday choices that eat my time, consequently leaving holes in undone manuscripts.

Refining

How can I refine my gardens? We ‘refine’ something by polishing or pruning it — weeding, adding waves of color, removing a plant that no longer seems to fit, or adding hardscape to enhance a focal point in your garden.

Refining my writing also includes the laborious chore of weeding, which is similar to the seemingly never-ending task of editing, revising and editing once again. It is labor to cut out words we believe help tell the story, but refinement actually means perfecting by pruning.

Encouraging

As Meriam Webster defines the word cultivate, it also means to further or encourage. Furthering the arts of gardening or writing takes a concerted effort — the work and act of encouragement. Kipling explains it best whether one is speaking about the art of gardening or writing:

Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
 by singing: -"Oh, how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade.
~Rudyard Kipling, "The Glory of the Garden." Simply put, we need to "just do it."

And the act of gardening and writing in itself is self-encouragement: I cultivate my garden, and my garden cultivates me. ~Robert Brault.

Happy Writing and Gardening... Janet