A Personal Garden Adventure 🪴

There's something incredibly special about gifting handpicked flowers from your own garden to friends. It's a gesture that carries the essence of your hard work, care, and the beauty of nature itself.

Usually after a long day at work, I find myself wandering around the garden as the sun is beginning to set. A glow of orange and pink kissing every flower. As I'm getting lost in my own mind, looking at every single petal on a zinnia an overwhelming feeling of needing to create right that moment takes over. I've completely switched gears.

With less than an hour left of the evening glow, I race to get a bucket of water and harvest as many flowers as I can, no plan in place but grab anything that catches my eye. Who are these flowers are going to? I still haven't decided. Often I tell myself they will be for me this time.

I have filled a bucket or two full of flowers, running inside with less than 20 min of daylight left to create an arrangement I think I am going keep. I grab a vase of two and fill them with water. This part always feels like it takes the longest as I see the evening glow in the garden starting to get darker and darker. I have set everything out on the table, as a small breeze enters my garden and I can feel the night starting to cool.

I quickly start to arrange flowers without a plan, shoving in as many fillers as I can. Placing more flowers than I should in a single vase. I can't help but go over the top with what I am creating, I have the flowers so I might as well place as many as I can. I have, at this time started to think, "I can't keep this and I know exactly who could use a pick me up this week". I get kicked into overdrive as I use the last zinnia from my harvest bucket. I'm out. I need just a few last flowers.

Racing out to the rows I grab one last handful of flowers to fill in the last few spaces. The small amount of the daylight I had to work with has gone as I place the last stem in the vase. It's done, and it's bigger than I ever thought it would be. With my friend in mind, I can't wait for the morning to come to deliver my latest moment of crazy from the garden.

I wish I had attached a heartfelt note to the flowers. Expressing my appreciation, sharing a fond memory, or simply send warm wishes. That never crosses my mind until it's too late. While I love seeing the faces of friends when they see an over the top flower arrangement I would have loved to add that personal connection to the arrangements. The way the faces of friends light up with excitement is priceless and makes all the work in the garden worth it.

While this chapter is coming to a close this season, I will enjoy every last flower the garden gives me. The beauty, serenity & joy it has provided over the summer outweigh the sweat, pain and frustration tenfold. This has been a journey I wouldn't trade for anything. Countless lessons have been learned this year, knowledge that I would have never gotten any other way.

your friend,

Robbie.