Green fingers

My interests diversified as I grew up but the first exposure to gardening remained green in mind

I think it was in my junior high that I developed an interest in gardening and an inclination toward what they call ‘green’ fingers. Back then, we studied in a government school, where they encouraged us to work on our own little plot, as a part of what we called SUPW or socially useful productive work.

Happily, we laboured in the sun, enduring the tan, the cracks in our tender young hands, oblivious to all discomforts, as we coaxed life into the soil, watching with avid delight, as each little bud blossomed. We were young, back then, but we understood fully, the importance of these words by Alfred Austin: “The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.’’

Yes, as we nurtured the plants and weeded patiently we learnt many lessons in this landscape of life. Gertrude Jekyll sums it up pithily, “A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.’’

Perhaps, our watchful teachers thought of all this, and more, as they guided us, as we took our baby steps in gardening. We took it all in the right spirit, enjoyed every step of it, and why shouldn’t we? We were transported to a whole new world, where we could, actually, see with evident fascination and visible awe, creatures of the Lord making their way around our little patch-snails, worms, butterflies, dragonflies, ladybirds etc.

With the passage of time, I grew up and my interests diversified but those memories of that first exposure to gardening remained engrained in my mind. Countless lessons I learnt from all these little plants. George Bernanos says it best, “Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odourless but all together perfume the air.”

So many days, I was crestfallen and stepped out for a breath of fresh air. I held a little leaf in my hands and regained my sense of balance. William Blake’s words put it best, “To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower/Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.”

To stop, to contemplate, to live in the moment – I have learnt all this and more from the flora. I learnt, also, that gardening was as much about the head, as about the heart, the spirit, and the soul.

Perhaps, I can sum it all up with Russell Page’s insightful comment, “If you wish to make anything grow, you must understand it, and understand it in a very real sense. ‘Green fingers’ are a fact, and a mystery only to the unpractised. But green fingers are the extensions of a verdant heart.’’