Gardening Zen: Find the Space in Between

Plant For Profits Column, Leslie F. Halleck

Are You Reminding Your Customers of The Transformative Experience of Gardening?

Times are stressful.

This is not new news, but the stress isn’t letting up for anyone and it’s likely most of us are going to need to find more effective ways to manage chronic stress. I mean sure, you can cut back on booze and sugar, but ultimately chronic stress is just as if not more toxic to our overall health and well-being. Getting to that space in between, or liminality, where you experience a sense of timelessness is a hectic modern world is not only desirable, but I’d say necessary in order to manage our modern day health and longevity.

So what is liminality, exactly? Well, it’s different for each of us but if you’ve ever done something that you felt so absorbed in that you lost track of time, that’s essentially liminality. It’s the space between our “tended world” with all its to-do lists and constructs, and the wild world. A hybrid between total order and total chaos that is most accessible for us as humans, or a space of transformation.

Gardening, for example, is an activity that creates intense liminality for me. When I’m gardening, my mind lets go of all my tended world responsibilities and stresses, and gets into a “zone”. I hyper focus in a very intuitive manner on the soil, the digging, the planting, the pruning…and all the observation of wildlife, flowers, foliage that naturally accompanies these activities. I can loose track of time and often garden for hours on end without realizing I’ve missed meals or have physically worked myself beyond my limits! It’s wonderful.

Perhaps you get into the space between when you’re tending your houseplants, or scouring the seed catalogs for hours, or walking in the woods, staring at trees, bird watching, or watching moving water. Perhaps drawing and painting creates the same feeling, as it does for me. I also get into a hyper-focus or liminal state anytime I’m learning something new that piques my interest. For any of you fellow ADHDers who also have interest-based motivation, that’s nothing like spending five straight hours diving into research on a new interest or hobby, and forgetting the world even exists. Ooops forgot to make dinner! All of these activities create a liminal experience for me, as I imagine they do for you and your customers.

I’ve no doubt that social media is also creating states of liminality for many people these days, just not healthy ones. It’s so easy to get sucked into scrolling for hours and not realize how much time has gone by wholly unnoticed. I’m certainly guilty of it. So, what can we do instead...

And where does gardening, and businesses that serve the industry fit in the in between?

As purveyors of plant and gardening products and services, you have a unique opportunity to be of public service to your customer community. What you provide, sell, and teach in the plant, gardening, tree, and landscaping spaces offers up authentic opportunities for healthy disengagement from the totally tended world; creating space for people to connect with and sink into nature and its wonders in a way that improves their health and well being.

People love nature and gardening for good reason. We’re all part of nature, not above it or outside of it. We're integrated in the ecosystem, but our consciousness and intelligence allows us to feign superiority, which then breeds disconnect.

Remember, we’re all consumers. What activities and experiences make you feel a sense of timelessness, after which you feel refreshed and less stressed? Now, think about your customers and their similar experiences. If your products and services offer up opportunities for such liminal experiences to your customers, and you’re not talking about it and infusing this wellness component into your marketing, then you’re doing a disservice to your community and likely your bottom line.