What is a garden
- This is Section 1 of the Gardening Seminar:Start your own garden. Comments or questions are appreciated. You can also write to John Eagles.
A general definition of a garden is 'a piece of ground, often near a house, used for growing flowers, fruits, or vegetables.'[1]
When you start your own garden, you may be lucky and have ground fit for gardening around your own house. Otherwise you may have to rent or buy a piece of land that you use for gardening. In some cases, you may not have any land to use as a garden and all you can do is to have potted plants in your windows or a small greenhouse.
This seminar is written for the beginning gardener. It is to make you familiar with some basic principles of gardening and to help you get started by providing practical tips and information.
But before we do that, i'd like to share some thoughts about what a garden can mean for you.
A garden as a gate to the cosmos
A garden can be considered as a gate to the entire cosmos. Here is the place where you can meet all that lives and is. And you, you yourself are the creator of this magnificent place that your garden can be!
Although the words of the paragraph above are grand, i'm not exaggerating. In your garden you find or are connected to the sun and the stars, the earth and the moon. You can invite people there. Animals such as bees, worms, birds, micro-organisms, they all are living in or visiting your garden. You yourself determine what crops you grow, but apart from the plants you have planned to be there, there will be many other plants that grow by themselves. Even though we often call them weeds, they do have an important function in gardens.
In your garden you are also dealing with minerals, mostly in the form of fertilizers. Your garden needs water and air, and sunlight or shade.
In another dimension, your garden also is a spiritual place. Gardens, like any other areas on earth, also exist in the spirit world. You can learn to become aware of the Spiritual aspects of gardening. You can learn to work together with angels and other spiritual entities to make your garden a place of spiritual beauty.
Different types of gardens
Gardens can be designed in many ways. See the following images to get an idea.
Renaissance garden
Japanese garden
A garden in India
A city garden in Shanghai
A Chinese garden
An Italian garden
Zen garden
A French formal garden
A castle garden in Portugal
A garden in Taiwan
A vegetable garden
Your garden as a source of health
When you grow your own vegetables, fruits and herbs, you can be sure that you have food that gives you good health. Firstly, when you make a good plan you can have fresh vegetables pretty much throughout the year. Several vegetables endure hard winters. It's important to eat fresh vegetables rather than those that have been in stores for one or more days. Especially raw vegetables are degrading as soon as they have been cut. Secondly, you can make sure that your vegetables weren't grown with any pesticides and herbicides. All that chemical stuff that professional gardeners throw on their soil and plants comes in your body and isn't doing anything good. Thirdly, when you fertilize your garden with good fertilizers, your crops will be strong and healthy and will contain many vitamins and minerals. All those good elements become part of your own food and body. Fourthly, by nurturing your garden you'll get ample body movement and fresh air and sunlight.
Your garden a place of beauty and relaxing
By making a beautiful garden you'll very much increase the value of your home and the pleasure of your living. Your garden can be a place for meditation and prayer or just to enjoy the beauty of nature and smell the pleasant fragrances. Butterflies and bees and birds will soon visit your garden and you can observe them while you are working or resting in the garden.
Let's get to work now
Well, i'm sure that when you read this page, you already are a gardener or you want to become one. So let's get to work and find out how you can make your own great garden!
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- Gardening Seminar:Start your own garden to go to the other sections of this seminar.
