A blog about bringing beauty, meaning, and soul into home and garden

Backyards are symbolic places.   Throughout the year, and even in the summer here in Oregon, we gaze at them through panes of glass.  Often, because of  weather, habit, or health, we do not inhabit them.  Yet they hold vivid meaning in our imagination and hearts.   Thomas Moore says that gardens cannot be discussed adequately as physical places for they are mostly places in our imagination.

Backyards are the colorful backdrop to the drama that is unfolding life.  Some plants come to represent different aspects of ourselves, or our family’s life, or hold certain memories.  We may not even be conscious of this meaning.  And so a familiar tree or bush becomes a container for what most deeply affects us.   As our life changes, so does the plant, and yet something about it remains constant.

Carl Jung’s view is that one’s garden becomes a containment of the many emotions and fantasies that fill our minds.  Over time and with familiarity,  gardens even become companions and, Jung thinks, become an image of the deeper self in the busy-ness of life.

For myself, one of the old fir trees (which is at least 150 years old) in the southern corner of our east-facing yard, speaks of strength.  It mirrors the determination that I feel in facing my life’s challenges, and it reminds me to stay rooted in myself and the greater life force of the universe.  

Meet seedling James, a five year old red japanese maple

Our children hunt for japanese maple seedlings that sprout up here and there of their own accord in our backyard.  The kids replant them in pots,  which they call the “nursery.”  Caring for these orphan trees means a lot to my kids.  Each seedling tree has its own name, gets watered by them, and must withstand the harshness of winter on the patio or perish.  Watching over their shoulders, and hearing them discuss their trees –“how James is doing”–  I have been touched at the ways the seedlings mirror what is going on in the kids lives.  Even children express that deeper self in the garden. 

How has your garden been a companion to you?  Are there any ways that your garden mirrors the stories of your life, or has become an image of your deeper self?  Please share.