Benefits of an Artist’s Garden
For most of my adult life, I have lived in urban neighborhoods, carving out new vegetable gardens in limited spaces, starting over with each move. Now that my husband has retired, we were able to acquire property with the perfect location for a garden. This past week, we established our 24 x 24-foot vegetable garden.
We started our seeds in the kitchen, nurturing them for their future space and anticipating spring, when we would build our new garden. This past week, we completed our project!
Fortunately, May has been warm in Wisconsin; we began building our vegetable beds from wood we found at our place. Then, we purchased 8-foot fence posts and deer netting to stretch around the perimeter. We drove an hour to find a rabbit guard fence in stock and bought 100 feet. Then, we dug a trench and buried it a third-of-the-way below ground to prevent the diggers. We hauled up muck to nourish the soil and mixed in the nutrients in preparation for planting.
Spring also brings newly hatched mosquitos, so we gardened with netting suits and lots of bug spray!
We have been gardening together for a long time. Each year, there are new goals, challenges, and helpful ideas on social media from gardeners who share their methods. This year, we added garden fabric netting to our beds to help with insect nibbling away.
I love to get my hands dirty, and even though I am not working on my art, gardening gives me time to think about ideas. While outside, I notice “unexpected gifts,” which I often reference as inspiring my art. This past week, I stopped what I was doing and observed butterflies drinking from a puddle left by a rain shower.
Gardening is therapeutic and satisfies us in growing vegetables for ourselves and flowers for the pollinators.
There is a bond between artists/gardeners, even with those who have left us, like Georgia O’Keefe. Several years ago, I bought a cookbook, “A Painter’s Kitchen-Recipes from the Kitchen of Georgia O Keefe,” by Margaret Wood. Georgia ate healthy, grew organically, and became self-sustaining before it was a trend. I find her gardening and cooking as inspiring as her paintings.
Vermont artist Susan Abbot wrote in her blog, “Gardening Artist,” “For me, part of being a human being means growing some of my food, partnering with nature, and doing physical as well as mental work.” I do agree with her statement.
I recently saw an IG video post from Portnoomarketgarden, Ireland, referencing a motivational quote from Speak2succeeddd: “Pick something you would do for free and make that your career, and you’ll never live a sad day in your life.” This statement summarizes much of what creative people feel and experience when they garden.
Our Gardens and Art nourish us. Do you enjoy gardening? What are the benefits for you besides eating healthy?
IG:portnoomarketgarden, Ireland
IG: speak2succeeddd, USA
https://www.amazon.com/Painters-Kitchen-Recipes-Georgia-OKeeffe
