New beginnings are great. The opportunity to start again, to re-invent oneself doesn’t come around often. January always carries the promise of such possibility.
Re-inventing ourselves has its challenges and is not as easily achieved as making changes to our home and gardens. As nurturing is essential to positive development thus so can remodelling our immediate environment contribute to the inner change we may seek for ourselves.
Spring cleaning, discarding clutter, re-arranging rooms and changing the painted colour of the walls in our house will reinforce the change we seek.
This is especially true in the garden where we can change our minds whenever we like. Here we can throw out the old and tired plants of the past and create something new and exciting for ourselves in the present.
A garden purge in January and February is a good. Such activity acts as a catalyst for future transformation which must inevitably follow the discarding of the old and the outdated.
These are such hot and dry months and the best activity in this time is pruning and clearing. So pull out those plants that don’t work you anymore and throw them away. It will be liberating and is necessary because some things need to go before new ideas can flourish.
Tackle those low slouching trees. Take a saw, a pair of loppers or secateurs and cut off low hanging, secondary and criss-crossing branches. By removing these branches you raise the leafy tree canopy making your garden will feel bigger, brighter and more airy.
Overgrown and shapeless bushes can be sculpted into specimens by exposing their stems and branches. Pruning is a meditative and creative activity and also a step in the right direction of making positive change.
Indigenous Orphium frutescens – flowering now
Once yesteryear’s disorder has been cleared we are free to express new ideas and put these into action. A new garden project is a great way to start the year off. Go explore the nurseries for inspiration and new plant material. Plan a new garden path, a new paved area and outdoor shower or herb and salad garden.
Once completed it will always be a reminder of the changes we sort for ourselves at the beginning of the year and watching those new plants grow in response to our care will re-enforce this journey.
