Gifts from the Garden from Cherie
August 2025
It’s late summer and our vegetable garden is just about at its peak. The tomatoes are deep red, butternut squash is starting to turn to a soft pale orange, and the eggplants are a vibrant purple. The pepper plants are brimming with fruit, and some of the little pie pumpkins that we have grown for the first time have already turned bright orange. While the bounty of the harvest is incredibly rewarding, there are other gifts that the garden offers.
What calls me to the garden each morning is the peace and contentment I feel when I am surrounded by nature. While tending to the plants, I feel the cool morning air, I hear birds singing and bees buzzing, and I smell the scent of the fragrant basil and marigolds. I get excited when I discover the little surprises like the emergence of new seedlings, the first tomato that is ready to pick, or a zucchini that has doubled in size overnight. When I am working in the garden, I become totally immersed in what I am doing, I lose track of time and am in the moment. No worries or cares. No phone, no distractions. Just me and the garden. I am in flow, actively and fully engaged in what I am doing and feeling in the present.
The garden has also taught me about patience and perseverance. I’ve learned that growth takes time as well as lots of tender loving care. The tiny little seeds will eventually grow into lush, towering plants or vines bearing beautiful and delicious fruit in their own time. Of course, it doesn’t always turn out this way. That is where perseverance comes in. Sometimes all of the hard work and effort to meet the challenges of weather, insects, or critters aren’t successful. There is nothing more disappointing than to open the garden gate and see the plant that you have been trying to keep alive, wilted and fallen to the ground. With failures come opportunities to both accept the nature of what is and learn what I can do differently next year. Committing to the hard work and confronting the challenges along the way is what makes the gifts from the garden even sweeter.