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Evergreens provide visual
winter interest and cover for
wildlife, while deciduous species
bring color to the garden in
autumn and movement as the
leaves fall, leaving bare
branches as living sculptures.
Seedheads left in place after
flowers bloom will artfully
catch the snow while offering
natural birdseed. Vines can
provide both cover and food,
and their twisting stems add
sculptural details to a wall or
arbor.
Build a Plant Community
Your goal should be layers of
plant material, rising up from
perennials and grasses, into
shrubs and small trees, and
finally to taller trees.
You are striving to create a
plant
community
, not a series
of specimen plants.
Although economics may
require that you buy some
plants when they’re relatively
small, keep their mature height
in mind when placing them in the
garden.
Don’t neglect to plant larger
species, even if it will be many
years before they mature. They
will be your legacy to future
generations.
With all of this concentration
on designing and maintaining
a sanctuary, it is important
not to lose sight of your main
objective: to lessen stress.
If you enter your garden
retreat thinking only of the work
that needs to be done, then you
will have lost track of the main
reason for creating it.
While the garden work itself –
the digging and weeding and
watering – can be part of the
relaxation process, there also
needs to be time for idleness.
This is frequently a hard
concept for gardeners to
embrace, and it is one of the
main reasons that you should
include a bench or other
comfortable seat, situated so
that you can easily view a focal
point.
Particularly in our western
culture, we equate work with
profit and even with morality. In
a sanctuary garden, if you
constantly feel that you must
be working, you’ve simply
brought the pressures of the
outside world in with you, and
you will be unable to lose
yourself in those sights and
sounds of nature that you’ve
incorporated into your refuge.
Let Your Senses Absorb Nature
We humans have altered our
normal cycles with electricity
that lets us work in the dark,
caffeine which wakes us up when
our bodies crave sleep, and a
tendency to even work hard at
planning and “enjoying" our
vacation time.
Our time in the garden should
have periods when we lose
ourselves in the tasks of
weeding and watering, but even
more important are those
periods when we sit quietly and
let all of our senses absorb the
nature surrounding us.
A sanctuary garden can help
us return to the normal
patterns of nature.
Frequently it’s people who
already have a yard who start
envisioning a sanctuary garden,
but those with less space – for
instance, apartment or condo
dwellers – are often the ones
Time in the garden –
experiencing the moment,
the pause between the
breath; fully being in the
moment; letting go of
fear, stress, and any
feeling of incompleteness
– links us with eternity.
We can then appreciate
and celebrate all that we
have by being truly
present.
– Elizabeth Murray
Cultivating Sacred Space
