Annuals and Perennials

I come from a long line of English gardeners. My great grandfather was the head gardener at "the big house" in my grandmother's village in Surrey, England, and won prizes at local fairs, much like depicted in Downton Abbey. My grandmother was also a skillful gardener and spent most of the warm seasons puttering about her numerous plots. As we've carved out space from the woods in our home and started to plant our gardens, I've come to appreciate how much of her knowledge she transmitted. 

It wasn't until I had my garden that I finally got sorted on annuals and perennials. Which ones last year to year? Or was it that you forever had to plant them? Until I was the one with my hands in the soil and paying the garden centre bills, I could never remember. 

For the last few years, we've been clearing trees and brush from around our house to make enough lawn for safe, enjoyable play and dining. We have finally achieved lawn - a wild kind replete with clover and other plants - and the time for a garden has arrived.

It reminded me of how some practices are for a season of our lives - in response to the places we find ourselves or shifting circumstances. And yet, regardless of the content, they nourish a more robust, mature relationship with spirit by simultaneously allowing us to stay connected to practice. 

In Buddhism, the term upaya-kaushalya ("skillful means") refers to making use of techniques and tools that may not "seem" to be of the highest order, yet if they are practical for staying on the path, the practitioner should use them. 

As a child I would have snubbed the leafy coleus for being dull compared to plants with blooms. Despite knowing plants' favoured conditions well, my grandmother tried to grow her favourite English plants, often with little success. (The poor rhododendrons never did well.) 

How often do we hold out hope for the practices we're attracted to but do not meet our needs? Like the plants and the climate, we need to consider the alchemy at work. It is, after all, the alchemy and not the practice itself that is important. If humble methods lend themselves well to your growth, celebrate your commitment to cultivation! All other practices are available when your season changes. 

May your practices sustain you - be they annual or perennial.