“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.”
Steve Maraboli

 

In Australia we have suffered through intense and far reaching bushfires. Now we are struggling through heavy rains and floods. The two extremes are the natural way of life in Australia. The epic poem My Country by Dorathea Mackellar tells of of a land of;

"I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountains ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains."

Yet the loss of a well tended and loved garden after the bushfires can have a deep personal and emotional impact. One that will take time to heal. Yet in rebuilding your garden there can be a form a cathartic healing. Taking time to reshape and re-imagine the garden can bring about a new phase in your relationship with the earth.

So to begin with the process of restoring the garden you will think from the ground up. The damage from the fire will have affected the soil. There will be a drying out of the soil and the burning off of natural organic and living matter that enrich it. The extent of the damage will depend on the heat and duration of the fires impact on the garden. To salvage what has been left will mean working to restore the soil. To do this you will want to remove as much ash and debris as you can. Turning over the soil and mixing in a good quality compost will help to restore the soils natural balance. Followed by a good layer of organic mulch prior to starting to plant. Leaving this for several weeks to will allow the soil time to become reestablished and ready for planting.

Starting over can be a frustrating thought. Yet if you take it in small even steps you will find that things will not become overwhelming. By creating a new layout of what you would like to build of your garden will give you incentive to become creative. Than by working the new plan in a grid or partitioned step by step process you will be able to work in small yet encouraging steps.

Make the best use of your local garden centre. Talk to the experts to find if there are hardier plants that could work for you. Plants that require less water then previous plants yet that have a natural beauty to add to the garden. As you redesign and remake the garden you may want to rethink the way in which water and layout work best for you. Again, the ;local garden centre will be able to assist you with a range of advice and suggestions.

Essentially the rebuilding of your garden marks not just the physical garden itself. It can also help you to reconnect with the earth and that special place you can escape to to find peace and solitude.

Happy gardening,
Michael