Meditation

 I'm not a great gardener. Mostly I just ignore everything around the house until it tries to come through the windows. I choose plants based on their ability to survive without intervention -- if something requires constant watering after the first year it goes in the ground, it's not going to last long here.

(In case you need a list of what grows in a dry, high-heat area with almost no water: roses, blackberries, artichoke, Swiss chard, and citrus. Oh, and of course oleander, which is poisonous and impossible to get rid of -- I'm not sure why people plant it all over the place. Sure, it grows anywhere, but it also burns like a torch.)

The best part of gardening, for me, is the meditative aspect. I'm bad at sitting still and thinking, but give me a shovel and some music, and I can dig for hours. (And then I can come inside and collapse because I don't use those muscles very often.)

I have a bunch of Bermuda grass (see terrible gardener above), and sometimes I make an effort to get rid of it. I realize that's an impossible task if you're not willing to use herbicides, but it gives me a goal.

In any case, today is the last day of Holidailies for the year. I hope you have your own version of meditative gardening to enjoy, and I wish you a healthy and happy new year!

Gratuitous Dogs Picture

(You can tell this isn't my garden because everything is alive.)