Garden season is beginning here in Seattle. The crocuses and snowdrops are out and the daffodils are just beginning to smile at us. Flowering trees have burst into bloom around the neighbourhood too. In my garden room I have planted a whole slew of both flower and vegetable seeds and next week will plant tomato seeds. It is a wonderful time of year and gardening often forms the focus for my contemplation.
I love gardening, and find that it is a wonderful place to connect to God and find refreshment and healing for my soul. For many of us this connection is enhanced by the creation of special spaces that are specially designed to strengthen these connections. Even the small contemplative gardens I create to sit on my desk provide inspiration, refreshment and at times healing as I sit and meditate on them. I am one of a growing number of people around the planet that finding themselves drawn into the contemplative nature of gardens. I hope that this list of books will help all of us enter more deeply into this aspect of gardening.
Creativity, Contemplation and Gardening
- Inheriting Paradise: Meditations on Gardening by Vigen Guroian. A delightful collection of garden meditations from an Orthodox Christian perspective.
- Gardens for the Soul by Pamela Woods. A beautifully illustrated book that provides great insights on designing outdoor spaces using ancient symbols, healing plants and Feng shui.
- Rooted in the Spirit: Exploring Inspirational Gardens by Maureen Gilmer. This is another beautifully illustrated and very practical book that helps you link your gardening to spirituality.
- Cultivating Sacred Space – Gardening for the Soul by Elizabeth Murray. This book invites us into sacred gardens at every season giving inspiration and ideas for our own sacred spaces.
- Everyday Sanctuary A Workbook for Designing a Sacred Garden Space by Jessi Bloom. This is an informative workbook that helps you design sacred space in the garden.
- Landscapes of Prayer by Margaret Silf. A beautiful book of prayer reflections exploring 9 different natural landscapes
- Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for A Modern World by John O’Donohue. A treasure that celebrates the beauty and mystery of everyday things.
- Reclaiming the Wild Soul: How Earth’s Landscapes Restore Us to Wholeness by Mary Reynolds Thompson. A journey into five great landscapes of our world that reconnects us to a rich source of wisdom, healing and wholeness.
- All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gayle Boss. Twenty-five meditations reflecting on how wild animals adapt when darkness descends.
- Morning Altars by Day Schildkret. The best process I have found for contemplative practice with nature.
- Earth, Our Original Monastery by Christine Valters Painter.
- Farming While Black by Leah Penniman. Not explicitly Christian, but makes connections between racial and environmental justice/reconciliation.
- Slow Seasons: A Creative Guide to Reconnecting with Nature the Celtic Way by Rosie Steer. An excellent guide through the Celtic seasons and their significance for today.
- To Garden With God by Christine Sine. This book may be getting old but it is still one of my most popular A good read as preparation for the garden season.
Other Books
- The Sanctuary Garden: Creating a Place of Refuge in Your Yard or Garden by Christopher Forrest McDowell and Tricia Clark-McDowell
- When the Trees Say Nothing: Writings on Nature by Thomas Merton
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- The Inward Garden: Creating a Place of Beauty and Meaning by Julie Moir Messervy
- The Pursuit of Paradise by Jane Brown
- Monastic Gardens by Mick Hales
- Upstream by Mary Oliver
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
- The Well Gardened Mind by Sue Steward-Smith
NOTE: As an Amazon Affiliate I receive a small amount for purchases made through links above.
Spirituality of Gardening Online Course
The Spirituality of Gardening Online Course is a prerecorded course with 6 sessions that you might like to watch as the garden season begins in the Northern hemisphere.
This course will be given live on May 11th. It will be interactive with contemplative garden practices and much laughter involved.