Writing Time as Garden Plot
Examining our capacities for blooming words.
COMING UP
Book Club for Writers: You Could Make This Place Beautiful
Thursday, April 25, 8-9:30 PM EST on Zoom
When one of her poems unexpectedly went viral, Maggie Smith’s life changed drastically. She penned a memoir about those life changes, and I think it’s the perfect fit for our book club: Smith grapples with the question of what a writer is to do with unanticipated fame. I’d love to have you there!
Paid newsletter subscribers will receive the book club Zoom link the day before the meeting!
During Sunday’s Preparing for Springtime Writing class, I accepted something about myself: I may not have the greenest thumb, but show me an azalea bush that’s about to burst forth in fuchsia and I will find the metaphor for creativity. 🌸
As I consider this springtime, assessing the time and space I will realistically have for my writing life this season, I’m reminded of last spring. This time last year, I was examining my yard for space to establish a symphony of native plants.
2023 was the year, I told myself. I would garden. My yard would be a rainbow, attracting butterflies and birds and pollinators and smiles from people passing by.
I read books about plants.
I attended gardening programs at the Jacksonville Public Library.
I started asking neighbors, “Hey, what are those yellow flowers by your front walkway? They’re gorgeous,” and then I Googled said flowers to see if they were native to Northeast Florida.
I decided on an area of my yard I wanted to focus on, a 12x8’ plot near the house where a bed of irises sat neglected. I removed the irises (the gardening equivalent of CrossFit) and raked the soil. I carefully selected the plants I wanted. Here’s the list I found in my journal recently:
butterflyweed: bright orange. 1-1.5 feet tall.
beach verbena: purple. 8-24 inches. not tampa verbena.
beach sunflower: groundcover. yellow.
seaside goldenrod.
blazing star: purple rods. 2-4 feet.
privet senna: yellow. grow in back. very tall! (10 feet)
purple coneflower.
I could envision the tiered heights, the variety of vibrant blossoms. I drew a diagram.
When I presented my Plant Plan to my friend Amy, a UF/IFAS master gardener, she politely told me, “That might be too many plants.” Their roots, she said, were going to crowd each other out if they were too close.
I was going to have to choose the plants I liked the most. I was going to have to narrow my vision.
Or at least I thought it would be that simple. Amy also told me that it was notoriously difficult to find native plants at local nurseries1. If I wanted certain plants, I was going to have to drive around Florida looking for them.
Sigh. I wanted to be a gardener, but I didn’t want to be a gardener that bad.
Lucky for me, Amy and her husband, Mike, were driving down to Orlando that weekend for an event at a native plant nursery, and they kindly offered to pick up plants for me. And they brought me back some stunning plants. Butterflyweed that wasn’t far from blossom. Goldenrod that would rocket with sunshiney tufts by the fall.
My friends brought me plants that were available, that would grow where I lived and benefit my local wildlife. They brought me what was sustainable.
AN EXERCISE FOR YOUR OWN WORD GARDEN 🌻
How to cultivate creativity this spring.
Examine your gardening plot for your writing. How much time, realistically, do you think you’ll have each week for writing? What big things are on the horizon this spring—March 19 and June 20—that you’ll need to take into account: travel, childcare, health procedures, pollen season allergies!, work deadlines, etc? What do the conditions of your writing life feel like: sunny and fertile? Shady and sandy?
Consider what spring might hold for your creative life. All the things you want to do in your writing life: the things you keep saying, “If I only had time, I’d do that.” Now is not the time to be realistic or logical: fill your garden with blossoms and color the way I did with my diagram!
Select the plants that most appeal to you. What do you most want to prioritize in your writing life?
Now, consider which plants are actually available to you this spring. Take a look at the list of things you want to prioritize and ask yourself: are these things really available to you right now, or are you going to have to do the writing equivalent of driving around the state of Florida looking for that particular plant? What is sustainable right now, and what feels like it may bloom more fully during another season?
I want to hear about your springtime writing plans! The comments are open. 🌱
BOOK CLUB FOR WRITERS MEETS IN APRIL!
On Thursday, April 25, 8-9:30 PM EST, my Book Club for Writers will discuss You Could Make This Place Beautiful live on Zoom.
When one of her poems unexpectedly went viral, Maggie Smith’s life changed drastically. She penned a memoir about those life changes, and I think it’s the perfect fit for our book club: Smith grapples with the question of what a writer is to do with unanticipated fame. I’d love to have you there!
Paid newsletter subscribers will receive the book club Zoom link the day before the meeting!
Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter! I’ll be back next week with highlights from a recent interview with author Michael Lowenthal. In the meantime, here’s something sweet.
A LOVELY MENTION IN THE BEACHES LEADER
Lonely Victories got a mention in my local newspaper’s Letters to the Editor section!
Thanks, Ginger, for the sweet shout-out. Happy audiobook listening!
Here’s the newsletter issue Ginger mentioned in her letter to the editor:
See you in your inbox soon!
💛 Hurley
Can someone in Jacksonville pleeeeeease open a native plant nursery?
One thing that happens to me in the spring is I want to be outside tending my garden, not inside at a computer writing. I live in New Jersey, and I'm tired of the cold weather. I try to do both, but I'm not always successful.
Love thinking about planning your days as you would any other project, including a garden. Also, hello from another native plant lover! I’m in Lake Mary, but happy to mail you some seeds if you like. There are also some native plant Facebook groups, you might tap into other locals willing to share. Best of luck with the magical gardening-writing combination!