If you catch me in the garden apparently doing nothing, blame Andrew Timothy O’Brien.
I try to stop and sit for a few minutes during gardening stints – usually perched on the bench with a cup of coffee – but, having read To Stand and Stare, it appears I need to do less more often.
Rather than dashing about dealing with ‘garden jobs’, our time would be better spent observing, watching and, as the book tells us, daydreaming: “A gardener needs both to dream and then to make those dreams a reality and I’m convinced that, if we’re to get the most out of our gardens, we need to spend as much time in our heads as we do on our knees.”
(I was given a copy in return for a fair review.)
What follows is part philosophical musing, part an ecological rallying call and, because Andrew is a professional gardener and I’ve yet to meet one that hasn’t passed on tips, part gardening advice.
Loosely following the seasonal year, To Stand and Stare examines our relationship with our gardens, how much other people’s opinions colour what we do from the snobbery over so called ‘car park plants’ to the false perfection of so many social media posts. We all have a collection of “dead and nearly-dead plants” but how many of us put them on show?
Along the way, we’re taught about the biological make-up of seeds, encouraged to feel like a tree, to think of gardening as dancing, and told the best way to dig a hole – like all the book’s tips, it includes pausing and taking slow breaths.
Andrew, a successful blogger and podcaster, believes that only by having a conversation with nature can we make gardening less onorous and more successful. Observing how plants grow naturally, being sensitive to the changing seasons and managing our plots with a light touch will make our gardens better for the planet and less of a burden.
“. . . gardening is what happens when we get in the way of nature,” he tells us.
Letting our lawns grow long helps wildlife, tolerating native plants and seeing them as wildflowers rather than weeds means less weeding, and every time we reduce the list of gardening ‘jobs’ we give ourselves more time to look and observe.
Above all, we shouldn’t be disheartened when things go wrong but see mistakes as the way to learn: . . . our garden will never be fininished, and we ourselves are works in progress. And – quite unexpectedly – in that fit we find perfection.”
If you need me, I’ll be in the garden standing and staring.
To Stand and Stare by Andrew Timothy O’Brien is published by DK with an RRP of £16.99. You can buy it for £13.59 here. (If you buy via this link, I receive a small commission. The price you pay is not affected.)
Top image: Andrew’s garden in Kent.
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Interesting. I try to do a daily walk around my garden (it is small so it doesn’t take long) to observe any changes and I am guilty of talking to plants. Sitting and doing nothing though is harder as you can’t help looking around and always notice something that needs attention! I know it is a ‘thing’ at the moment to let our lawns grow long and welcome wild flowers, but as anyone who has a surfeit of dandelions knows, you allow them to do their own thing at your own peril!
So true about dandelions! They may be good for insects but you can have way too much of a good thing.