For as long as humans have grown gardens, we’ve grown plants that can help heal us. Whether it’s herbs for a poultice, fruits and vegetables for nutrition, or flowers for tea, gardens have always given us so much. These healing gardens aren’t always about just growing ingredients, though.
The stories here show that in healing, gardens are a place to repair the spirit. Gardens are that place of solitude and contemplation that we need to calm or refresh ourselves.
The stories here have their emotional ups and downs, as is the case in Kika Dorsey’s My Mother’s Garden. Sometimes, quite honestly, life can throw challenges at us that we don’t always know how to handle, or think we can handle.
It can be hard to find our way through the hurt and pain. But there’s always a place we can come back to – our gardens. That’s the place Marilyn Kendall finds solace in thinking of her mother in One Million Daisies.
Whether we need the quiet of pulling weeds, the ever-so-subtle transformative nature of a compost pile, or just that little bit of space that gardens give us to share our stories with a best friend, we have our healing gardens.
The stories here will touch your heart and remind you that a garden is much more than just a collection of plants.
Feel free to stay a while and enjoy all the healing gardens stories we have to share below. And be sure to check out our Healing Gardens Freebie while you’re here, which features a hand-picked selection of our favorite stories from this category.
I can’t claim to know what it’s like to be a mother, but what I do know is that mothers deserve our utmost respect and appreciation. While women are out making entire humans, all we can do is stand back in awe, and love, for what is truly a sacrifice and devotion of love. For […]
You’ll find fond memories of a mother’s garden or a grandmother’s garden throughout the stories in GreenPrints. For many of the writers, these gardens are places of warm memories, life lessons, or a peaceful refuge from the world. I love reading these stories because they remind me just how much power a garden has. Not […]
Even if the peony wasn’t the designated flower of my home state of Indiana, I’d still cherish it. I have a particular fondness for the varieties with densely-packed heads—those glorious thicknesses of petals. The fragrance, if bottled, would be my signature scent. When my husband Alan and I relocated to England, certain plants were […]
I don’t have many neighbors close by, so most of my landscaping inspiration falls more into the vegetable and flower gardening variety. But a friend who lives in the suburbs has a different story. He keeps his yard meticulous. The grass is cut weekly, the shrubbery is trimmed, and he’s one of those legendary gardeners […]
Many of us have memories of a special garden. Whether a grandparent’s garden we recall from childhood, our first garden as an adult, or even our current gardens, our gardens live in our hearts and minds long after the last harvest. But sometimes there’s the forgotten garden. The forgotten garden might exist in a distant […]
Spending the day in the garden can be very satisfying, but it’s also hard on your body. You plant, prune, dig and tidy, and before you know it, hours have passed. If you’ve ever stood up afterward and felt that unmistakable ache in your lower back, you already know the catch. However, making a few […]
I love butterflies. They’re like little artistic stained glass windows flitting about the flowers and vegetables. They’re helpful, too. Though they aren’t the pollinators that bees are, butterflies do their part. Caterpillars, on the other hand … Let’s just say I’m not overly fond of caterpillars in my garden. Yes, I know you don’t get […]
I love gardening stories. They may be humorous, scientific, whimsical, or even tales of frustration and wonder. Why, after all, can everyone around me grow beautiful lavender plants, but mine seems like I just dug them out of the basement? I’m sure there’s a story there! Plus, there’s no shortage of material. Had a run […]
If you’ve spent any time in a garden — even just a moment with your hands in the dirt or your eyes tracing the veins of a leaf — then you’ve likely felt it: the healing power of nature. As you’ve probably gathered if you’ve followed my work — from blog posts and story collections […]
Spending a productive day in the garden is like therapy for your mind, but it can be challenging for your body. The next day, you might wake up with a stiff, aching lower back and wonder if you worked your body in a healthy way or if you should be more gentle with yourself. Learn […]
