Spring is here, so it’s time to break out the pruning shears and get into the soil!
No matter if you have a garden in the yard, a roof garden, or a collection of plants inside or on the balcony, gardening can be a great creative hobby.
Why is gardening such a great creative outlet?
There are several reasons why tending to your garden is a great way to develop creative skills:
Engages all five senses
Gardening allows you to unleash all 5 senses, which helps stimulate creativity:
- Seeing the beautiful colors in your blooms
- Smelling new flowers and herbs
- Hearing the sounds of the wind and the animals outside, or the sound of your own hands and tools
- Touching the dirt and feeling the soft leaves and petals of your plants
- Tasting the final product of your herbs, fruits, and vegetables
Requires patience and careful attention
Just like developing a new creative skill, gardening requires you to slow down and build a solid foundation. For photography, this might be learning about the ins and outs of your camera (or what kind of camera you’d like to buy) and finding some inspiring photographers and images. For gardening, this means preparing the soil, studying the right types of plants for your garden, and carefully planting seeds. Creative work and gardening both require you to invest time on a regular basis — practicing your new skills or watering and pruning your garden — to encourage growth and get closer to your goal.
Helps you spot the beauty and inspiration in everyday life
Creative work and gardening both help you see the world around you in a different way. As you learn to paint, you might learn more about color theory, which helps you appreciate the color combinations in artwork, on signs, on websites, in a sunset, in a dark cloud, or in your own garden. As you develop your green thumb, you appreciate more and more the greenery, landscaping, trees, and flowers all around you. Gardening can even help you unlock creative inspiration for other projects — seeing the natural colors in a bleeding heart plant may inspire you to explore a new color palette in your watercolors. (There’s a reason so many famous artists and thinkers turned to nature for inspiration!)
Looking for more ways to get creative with your gardening? Watch for part two, “Two Great Ways to Turn Your Garden into a Creative Project” on the blog soon! In the meantime, visit me on Instagram and find some of my recent work on DLWFineArt.com.
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