Wise Enough to Do the Simple Things
Great gardeners root themselves first in the fundamentals of gardening. Then, all actions and information falls into place, fitting into the bigger picture of their understanding.
These gardeners realize the fundamentals of gardening are the most basic and most powerful aspects any of us can do in our gardens. They may seem simple, but they are deceptively so and can sometimes take quite some effort to achieve. Either way, the best gardeners take all of these seemingly simple actions first because they have the wisdom to know they are actually the most essential. In our teaching of gardening on this site and in the similar book, we start there, with the same actions taken by all wise experts. And, in the typical way essential things go, once these actions are taken, often nothing else is needed.
It’s also only in the fundamentals that we find deep gardening knowledge and true wisdom. Having that, we can then put all the other, more surface, information in context, knowing exactly why, how, or whether to try or just ignore, each. Have you ever been overwhelmed by conflicting and contradictory advice, only to find one person who can explain the idea so simply and fully that it puts even the previously contradictory ideas into context? That’s what’s needed in gardening.
Borne of the courage given by deep experience, this clear knowledge and gardening wisdom often has more to do with noticing, acknowledging, and having the will to act than it does newfound knowledge. It’s often just the ability to accept simple truths as true and act on them, and it’s usually shown when people have the courage to act on these truths no matter what other truths other people are following. In life, following wisdom often takes this courage.
It’s the ability to walk out your door and continue walking around your neighborhood, street, or rural road, despite the trend of people getting in their cars, driving to a building which they’ve paid to enter, and walking on a machine while reading a magazine and looking at themselves in a mirror.
It is taking time to talk to your child, partner, friends, siblings, and parents when you’re together when others might be reading celebrity gossip and watching “must see” videos on their phones.
It is being present for those you love and admire.
It’s also ignoring those you don’t as much as possible— despite the push to be polite and fake—because you know you only have so much time and energy to spend on anyone, and you’d rather spend it on people who really matter to you.
It’s eating food that you know makes you feel better.
It’s getting the exercise you need in a way that makes you happy.
It is learning who you really are, what you really need as a person—that which makes you feel thankful to just be alive that day—and acting on that for the rest of your life.
Wisdom sometimes is just the ability to accept and act on truth, no matter how simple or complicated.
Gardening is no different. Wisdom to do the essential things first, no matter how seemingly basic or simple, guides the way. We start there.
