Today’s newsletter is going to be a little different. It is going to be fewer pictures and more thinking. Over the last few months, I have been trying to figure out what makes me happy and why it makes me happy. How do I get to my happy place? Why is that my happy place? What lets me push through the things that try to drag me toward a negative mindset? For me, the answer keeps coming back to being present. Really present. Focusing on where I am. Taking it in. Forgetting everything else for a little while and going to a physical and mental place that I enjoy. And while I am there, I remind myself why I enjoy it.

For centuries, gardening has helped people relax. That need is greater today than ever. We live in a rushed and anxious world that rewards distraction. Anxiety is worrying about the future. Depression is worrying about the past. I have always felt that the more I stay in the now, the further I move away from those feelings. Running and gardening both put me right into the present. I help myself get there by asking a few simple things.

• What are five things I see
• What are five things I hear
• What are five things I feel
• What are five things I am grateful for

These reset me. They force me to notice what is around me. They bring me back. Gardening does this naturally. It has for thousands of years. The stress of life has always been here. It just changes shape over time. People from a few hundred years ago would think we have it easy. Running water. Stores full of food. Phones that let us reach anyone at any moment. Information on anything within seconds. But stress is still real. It just looks different. Gardening and personal time have always been a way to find peace. They always will be.

One of the hardest battles now is connection. Technology started as a gift and turned into a fire hose. There is no off button. It creates a constant chance to compare ourselves to others. It pushes productivity and raises expectations higher and higher. Someone is always trying to reach us. The time with just you and nothing pulling on you has shrunk to minutes a day. That makes finding that time even more important. The garden has become that place for me.

I'm not sure what happened along the way that made us afraid to be alone and without headphones. Don't get me wrong, I love a good podcast or some music when I'm running or gardening. Those can take me to a great place too, even be informational. Yet there's no doubt you lose connection to what you’re actually doing. When I’m listening to a podcast while running, I can’t tell you much about the run. When I garden with something playing, I find myself just going through the motions.

This is fine in moderation, but it’s not being present, it’s an escape. Again, that’s ok, but it serves a different purpose.

The line test is one I like to use. If you’re standing in a long line by yourself, how long until you grab your phone? For most its minutes or seconds. Many people can’t even grocery shop or drive without talking to someone. I always wonder what’s going on in their mind that makes them think they can’t spend thirty minutes simply being present and observing.

This brings me back to gardening, it’s a great place to start that practice.

Winter makes it tougher. Less sunlight. Less time outdoors. Less gardening. It is not a coincidence that depression and anxiety rise when the garden goes dormant. Winter is where we have to substitute. A hobby. A greenhouse. A grow light. Anything that gives a piece of that garden feeling. If you are lucky enough to garden all year, I am jealous.

Where I live, gardening can take place from March until December. Only three months to fill in. But those can be long months. I extend my season by bringing plants inside. A few peppers. Some cuttings. Starting seeds. Grow lights are inexpensive now and give me another month or two of enjoyment indoors.

When I bring up what I am thankful for, I always include my physical ability to do these things. A bad run does not upset me as much anymore because I am thankful I can still run. When injury took that away for a while, it was mentally rough. I also know many people can no longer garden like they once did. They would love to feel sore after a long day in the yard. That is a gift. Not everyone has it. There is a reason why grandparents sit on a porch or feed the animals and smile. It brings them to the present. For a little while they are not thinking about the hard parts of aging.

It may sound a little cliche, but I think it matters. There is a reason doctors and therapists recommend getting outside, growing things, and moving your body. If you go a step deeper and intentionally put yourself in a positive, present moment, you can keep your mind from drifting to dark places.

Another added beauty of gardening is that it removes one of the most toxic things in life: blame.

In the ERO model, Event, Response, and Outcome, if your response is blame, you’ll never reach the best outcome. Gardening teaches this naturally. When things go wrong, we usually blame nature or ourselves. There’s a strange comfort in thinking that bad results were out of our control.

Of course, most of the time it comes down to a poor choice of plant, location, or care. But saying “it was a bad winter” is easier on the soul. That’s part of what makes gardening so special, it stays positive. Even when things fail, most gardeners accept it with grace. The only real loss is a few dollars spent, and today, we’re staying focused on the good.

Even if you do not have a garden, just walking around a garden center for an hour can help. Or a botanical garden. Or a park with good plantings. There is a reason those places exist. Fresh air. A little movement. A little beauty. A little release.

At the nursery we used to have dozens of people who came out and never bought anything. It used to bother me until I realized they came for the beauty and to relax. I became proud that we had built a place someone considered part of their peaceful time. They enjoyed grabbing a coffee and driving out to our place. I knew the sales would come if we created a place that people wanted to visit even when they did not need plants. You hear businesses talk about becoming a destination. That is what our nursery had become.

The purpose of today’s newsletter is to serve as a reminder. A reminder as many of us move into winter, to understand the deeper value of your garden and the act of gardening. To take the time and ask yourself the questions above. Maybe even ask them at other times. On a walk. At an event. Doing anything you enjoy. In my opinion, escaping for a small amount of time makes the rest of life much easier. The person who comes back from that run, that walk, or the garden may come back a little sore and a little tired, but they also come back with a feeling of self, thanks, appreciation, and gratitude.

And those are good people to be around. Plus you end up with a beautiful garden to enjoy the rest of the time.

Garden Center Sells for $160 Million

I will leave you with a fun story about a garden center. This past month a 38 acre garden center in Northern Virginia closed its doors, but not for the reason you might think. They sold the land for one hundred and sixty million dollars. Yes, over 4.2 million dollars an acre. I know what you are thinking. Was there oil or gold on the property. It was sold for data center land.

A lot of people do not know this, but the transatlantic cable comes into the United States in Northern Virginia. To get the most efficient connection to the databases that run the entire Internet, you put your data center within about 20 miles of where that cable lands. With AI and data becoming more important each year, that area now houses 35 percent of the entire world’s databases. Land prices have skyrocketed. The same land was purchased in 2004 for 2.3 million dollars when it was just land.

The sad part is the area lost a well-loved garden center and nearly 100 people are out of a job. The good news is that rumors say the employees were taken care of from the windfall. As much as I love the nursery life, if someone offered 160 million dollars, I would be moving the nursery to a place that is not 4 million dollars an acre and the new parking lot would be nicely paved. Link to article

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words

As always, HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND and thanks for reading…..pass this on to a friend if you think they will enjoy it. We added a bunch of readers last week so thank you everyone for the forwards. I’ll keep at it if you keep reading.



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