Garden Gratitude

 

If there is one place where I can while away my summer hours, it’s in the garden. Time just seems to stand still for me there. My mind clears, and my troubles drift away. It’s a living sanctuary.

I’ve planted a wide array of roses—my favor summertime flower—and they bloom one after the next. Their fragrance is soft, yet intense and so feminine. I cut some for my own bedside table, and little buds for my daughter Savanna’s room. Ever since Savanna was a baby, I’ve kept a small vase with fresh flowers in her room—one of the joys of having a little girl. She loves that they are always different, and I love teaching her all about the flowers.

In summertime, our gardens are the heart of our home. Everyday I spend time tending the French kitchen garden. It’s my joy. There we grow everything from culinary herbs to medicinal plants, and so many different kinds of organic vegetables, fruits and berries, which I harvest for our meals. How wonderful it is to walk by one of our newly planted Moringa trees and remember you can just pick the healing, nutritious leaves and eat them!

Savanna and I have also created a beautiful butterfly garden, one of my favorite spots in the yard. It shelters several dozen Monarch and Swallowtail caterpillars at a time, and watching their transformation is truly amazing. We can all get lost in time, just sitting on the log benches surrounded by all the fluttering butterflies. We also have a special spot where we keep our beehive, and, of course, we love discovering the honeybees as they visit the garden’s Magnolia blooms, or Orange Blossoms, or alight on the Pentas.

As you can imagine, the garden’s aroma is incredible. We have several varieties of citrus trees just now coming into bloom, and there is nothing quite like that scent of Orange Blossom. At the same time, the aroma of our blooming Almond Bush, which the bees and butterflies love, is intoxicatingly beautiful, which is why I’ve planted several under our bedroom windows. And then there is our Ylang-Ylang tree—a real treasure.  

I have to say whether I am walking the yard in complete meditation, just admiring nature, or sitting drinking herbal lemongrass tea fresh from the garden—at heart, I love being at home. 

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