Our guest writer this month is Sheila. Her garden is a beautiful metaphor for her life.

Over a lovely lunch shared with a friend Easter Monday, she invited me to write about my garden. What a concept!? Me write?

Well, thinking it through, I realize I have a relationship with my garden and it is a lovely one. It is a new garden(s) for me as I only moved into my home last July. This Spring, I have been watching patiently for new growth to appear. There are all the many bulbs I planted lovingly in the Fall coming up, which is much like giving birth as I watch them peek through the earth and gradually come to life. Then there are many more green shoots that I don’t know if they are weeds or plants! What to do? Are they friend or foe? Only time will tell.

I get lost in my garden and often will wonder about early in the morning as I go outside to collect the newspaper and get distracted. Do I have any new friends today? Plants tend to grow in spurts much like my children did over the Summer holidays. I like to move things around in my gardens – are they more happy in sun or shade, front or back? Would they be happier mixed with this or that? Some flowers like to be “show-y” and others strong and silent in the background. They are so much like my friends and family-all the different personalities.

I think of my garden as a metaphor of my life. There are the lively and colourful plants but equally important are the calm, peaceful and tranquil sections-think hostas and ferns. Then there are the lovely rose bushes, representing my late Mother and her grace and love. How about the happy and perky sweet peas climbing and dancing up the trellis? The tall and magnificent cherry tree that is gorgeous and makes a huge statement brings my faith to mind.

On creating my new gardens I am choosing plants to represent all the wonderful friends and family who have shaped and contributed so generously to my life. It is my garden of gratitude.