GreenPrints Sampler: Joy of Gardening–get FREE access right now!
No one will ever argue that gardening isn’t hard work, and well worth the effort, too. But sometimes the joy of gardening lies deeper than the soil in the garden bed. This FREEBIE digs into the sweet satisfaction that gardening brings beyond bright flowers and hearty harvests.
Dear Gardener,
We all garden for different reasons. Some of us enjoy the satisfaction of neat and tidy rows of seedlings fairly bursting with potential. Some of us revel in the smell of freshly turned earth and all the promise it presents. Some of us garden for the harvest. Some of us garden for the simple joy of gardening. This FREEBIE, GreenPrints Sampler: Joy of Gardening, celebrates that satisfaction of connecting with the earth.
The love of gardening that blossoms inside us grows from a wide variety of seeds. Family tradition. A hobby gone wild. An excuse to spend the day outdoors. And we all have a favorite part of gardening — from planting to harvesting — and yes, even weeding!
Celebrate the simple pleasures of working the soil with this FREEBIE, GreenPrints Sampler: Joy of Gardening. These stories remind us of what’s really at the heart of gardening. These little snippets from our GreenPrints Sampler: Joy of Gardening are just a peek at the vast harvest of heartwarming reading that awaits you between the covers of each issue of GreenPrints. Here’s a look at what you can expect.
When the Joy of Gardening Feels Like Art
Gardening isn’t all about stopping to smell the roses; a lot of it’s about digging. Deeply. Writer Karel Capek doesn’t mince words in his assessment of what’s at the heart of gardening. Here’s how his story begins.
I find that a real gardener is not a man who cultivates flowers; he is a man who cultivates the soil. He is a creature who digs himself into the earth, and leaves the sight of what is on it to us gaping good-for-nothings. He lives buried in the ground. He builds his monument in a heap of compost. If he came into the Garden of Eden he would sniff excitedly and say: “Good Lord, what humus!”
Dedicated gardeners know that healthy soil lies at the heart of a productive garden, and Karel approaches gardening like a master chef preparing an exquisite dish. Check out our FREEBIE, GreenPrints Sampler: Joy of Gardening, and consider the soil that slips between your fingers as you prepare your own garden.
Waiting: Gardeners know—and appreciate—it
Waiting is the name of the game in gardening. Gardener Pamela J. Tinnin seems to have waiting down to a science:
Waiting seems to be central to gardening—waiting for rain, waiting for the soil temperature to rise, waiting for that first sprout, waiting for the first ripe tomato.
Pamela’s the first to admit that she has never been very good at waiting. But she’s learning. For Pamela, cultivating her skill at waiting has been the long work of a lifetime. Read about how her childhood experiences planted seeds of patience with roots that run deep.
Read the FREEBIE, GreenPrints Sampler: Joy of Gardening, and get a personal perspective on cultivating patience in the garden and elsewhere.
Remedial Weeding
Weeding is just a fact of gardening life. Some gardeners hate weeding; others love it. Others, like gardener Becky Rupp, find a therapeutic aspect to weeding:
There’s an unmistakably remedial aspect to weeding. It’s a cathartic activity—even, properly practiced, a sort of vengeful voodoo. Yank up crabgrass, peppergrass, knotweed, and horsetail; tear out (cautiously, with gloves) the awful stuff that my field guide refers to as Horrible thistle; obliterate hawkweed, ragwort, and prickly lettuce. Each pestilential handful, metaphorically speaking, is a stumbling block in your daily path. Yank up the bureaucrats, the traffic jams, the nightly news, and that nutcase down the road who writes those appalling Letters to the Editor.
Weed long enough, Becky tells us, and you’ll feel better. A good afternoon of weeding can provide an oasis of calm and solitude — not to mention a less stressed garden.
Read the FREEBIE, GreenPrints Sampler: Joy of Gardening, to learn how traffic and donuts helped Becky Rupp arrive at her philosophical view of weeding.
For some gardeners, it’s all about the harvest. For others, it more about the process: the digging, the planting, the watering, and, yes — the waiting.
In our FREEBIE, GreenPrints Sampler: Joy of Gardening, you’ll find stories that will change the way you see your garden. You won’t weed the same way again after reading these heartfelt, inspiring stories.
And did I mention that it’s FREE?
I hope this freebie adds some lightness and joy to your gardening adventures and gives you some insight and inspiration to grow the garden you want. Go grab GreenPrints Sampler: Joy of Gardening and enjoy a few laughs on us.
These stories are FREE for you to enjoy today. And these are just a taste of what’s in store for you in each full issue of GreenPrints. It’s all about the heart of gardening.
I hope this freebie gives you some food for thought. Read GreenPrints Sampler: Joy of Gardening and celebrate a few of the things that make gardening so worthwhile.
Sincerely,
Amanda MacArthur
Daily Editor
GreenPrints
