Garden Superstition Gardening and Death

Garden Superstition Gardening and Death I had always noticed that my neighbor, a middle-aged widow, spent a great deal of time working in her garden. Given her age and preoccupation, she seemed a good source for a discussion on this subject. When I approached her, she was most excited to share her knowledge and beliefs. A woman of British descent in her mid-60s, she indicated that there were a number of superstitions which the British people relate to gardening and nature.

One that she shared which was particularly compelling tells that plants are extremely sensitive to the emotional harmony of an environment. According to her beliefs, plants have strange perceptive connections to human life and death. She explained that this symbiosis with a reason for the dedication which she showed to her own garden. The role of the garden tender is central to the life of the plant and vice versa. This, she said, is the reason for an old superstition which she believes to be based in British folklore.

This denotes that when a loved one has passed on, you must pass this news on to your favorite plant in the way that you would another person. I was able to find support for this superstition in my own research.

Here, I found that "in some parts of England it is still customary when someone dies, to whisper the news of this death to their favourite plants or, according to superstition, the plants will wither and die too." (Somerville, 1) This comports closely with the superstition offered by my neighbor, with the only exception being that she specified the death of one from the household rather than the more general death described in the research article here cited.

I found this to be a compelling belief, so I asked my neighbor if she really believed this was true. She said that she wasn't sure what to think. Certainly, she said, she can remember that she failed to do this when her husband passed away and that, indeed, several of her favorite plants did wither and die. However, she admits the likelihood that her grief and distraction had prevented her from tending with the proper attention to her garden.

She denotes that though she is not entirely certain that she believes the superstition applies in practical reality, she tends to communicate her feelings to her plants on a regular basis now. She feels a greater emotional connection to them now as she strives to keep her garden vibrant. From my discussion with my neighbor, I actually found that the superstition had rendered an interesting condition in her.

Namely, she has chosen to perpetuate the superstition not just based on an experience which suggested only a specious connection between death and her garden but perhaps based on the unconscious connection between the memory of her husband and the vibrancy of her garden. In this regard, it must be seen as a positive condition of belief for my neighbor, who offsets both her loneliness and her grief over the loss of her husband by establishing the level of emotional connectivity to the life of her garden.

This also helps to suggest a reason that.