My garden has taught me many lessons, not just about plants and their inhabitants but about the beautiful inner workings of our own lives. One of these lessons is that through identifying what you want to flourish, and tending to its needs with patience and consistency, truly magnificent things can come to life.

Providing the space and nutrients to those plants you wish to grow and blossom, means weeding out the invasive, nutrient-stealing plants from the beautiful garden you are trying to nurture.

This removal of weeds can often be seen as a begrudge-able task, with the presence of weeds in a garden a sign of neglect. But I have learnt to look at weeds in the garden, and their removal, through a different lens.

Weeding is not something I ever expected to have an impact on my mental health, but it turns out this gardening chore can be a balm in the process of healing, and here’s why:

I see time spent pulling weeds as a good opportunity to give dedicated contemplation to my troubles or worries. When the removal of weeds from the garden is looked at as a metaphor for the removal of troubles from the heart or mind, it is no longer a garden chore but an opportunity for personal growth.

As I am weeding my garden, I look at each weed as if it is part of the problem I am ruminating on. I see it as something that is taking life from the beautiful flowers trying to grow around it, the same way a troubling thought can detract from the enjoyment of our lives. As I grasp each one by its base and pull its roots from the ground, over the course of the process something deeply therapeutic takes place. It becomes not only a weeding of my garden, but a weeding of my inner world.

A comment that came from my beautiful Instagram community was that my garden is a big ‘flower-hug’ for the house; I had never thought of it like this and the connotation instantly warmed my heart. It is indeed a flower hug, not just for my house but also for my soul.

With love, Fleur x