Gardeners don’t see plants as extensions of themselves, or expect them to carry their legacy.

Instead, gardeners enjoy the bounty of nature and share it with others. Their care is given freely, guided by choice rather than a sense of ownership or obligation.

Gardeners respect nature’s diversity and cycles, creating a harmonious environment. They won’t try to make a lime tree out of an iris or shape it in their own image.

Instead, gardeners are curious about all the peculiarities of their plants, what kind of plants they are, what they need, what their specific preferences are. Gardeners do not believe that their plants’ needs and preferences are the same as their own. Instead, they observe and learn what their specific needs are. Do they need to be in the shade or do they want to be in the sun for more light? How much water do they need, and what nutrients and type of soil do they prefer?

Gardeners accept that it would be futile to make plants get by with less water or more sunlight than they need, and that many variables are beyond their control. Nature can’t be coerced to produce an outcome, and nature’s unpredictability isn’t in the gardeners’ hand.

What gardeners can do, is provide a nurturing environment and the curiosity and interest to learn how to create such an environment so that the plants in their care can thrive. And what makes gardeners content is to see the plants in their care grow to their full potential.

It is the continuity of life that gardeners support, not their own legacy. Finally, gardeners know that the love they give is not only for the plants, but also for themselves. This love nourishes not only the recipient, but also the giver. In the same way as nature is infinite, this source of love is also infinite.