| Caridad Pineiro® Romance Author

I love gardening and growing things. I can’t wait for the summer to see all the flowers blooming and get my tomatoes and basil into the ground so I can eat fresh veggies. But let’s face it, gardening can take time and can be labor intensive. How can you reduce the work involved?

For me the solution was to plant perennials in my various flower beds, do container gardening, and get a good layer of mulch or landscape fabric down depending on what kind of flower I was planting.

Mixing in perennials also cuts down on costs and labor. Since these plants come back every year and propagate, you don’t have to replant all the time and once it is time to split them, you can move them to other areas that need flowers.

Also, don’t be afraid to be eclectic and mix in different things, like vegetables with your flower beds. As long as you remember where they are it will all work out.

One last important thing to keep in mind: Make sure you know how much sun you get in the area where you want to plant. The little sticks in the plant pots you buy will tell you whether your plants need full sun, part sun or shade.

Here are some nice examples of beds with a mix of annuals and perennials. If you’d like to attract bees and butterflies, go for a palette of blues, pinks, and purples.

In Bryant Park you’ve got a riot of shrubs like roses and boxwood mixed in with biennial hollyhocks, lilies, petunias and more!
Bryant Park Gardens

This Ocean Grove garden is heavy on perennials and shrubs. Hydrangea in the back and daylilies to the left mix with a gardenia, what looks like salvia and liriope, a border plant that also flowers!
and perennials.

Some of my fav perennials and annuals are:

Hollyhocks (they come up every two years and die down, but are good re-seeders!)

Petunias are awesome for hanging baskets, container gardening and along flower bed edges. Petunias are an annual, so you’ll have to replant every year.

Asiatic lilies and day lilies come in a wide variety of colors and come back every year!

Think about doing a little vignette in your yard. I hauled this old garden cart out of the shed to give it new life out front. Filled it with annual hanging plants – small petunies and Gerbera daisies. A hint: Got the plants at a deal price of 4.99 each at my local supermarket! So don’t think you always have to go to a nursery or big box home improvement store for all your plants.

I was going for a look that said, I’m about to start gardening here and I guess it worked because when hubby got home he asked me if I’d forgotten to unload the plants! LOL! Anyway, coupled with a good layer of mulch and some stone accent to match that around our driveway and I’m happy with the look! I just replanted/remulched this area after the deer decimated my hostas. Sigh.

Yesterday we started talking about the energies within us which most of us just don’t tap for a variety of reasons. Probably one of the first reasons is stress. We are always on the go, hung up on things in the past or worrying about things that might happen in the future. We are sometimes so worried about the past and the future that we forget about the most important thing: the NOW.

So today’s talk is about seeking balance in order to restore some of THE LOST energies within us. It’s about stopping to smell the roses.

Just one thing before you start: Make sure that you check with a physician before engaging in any form of activity or exercise and make sure that you undertake this balancing activity in a safe environment.

The first step involves a concept known as “Earthing”.

Go outside (somewhere safe) and take off your shoes and socks. Grass, earth, sand or the ocean are perfect places, but standing on concrete will work as well. Wood, not so much since it’s such a poor conductor. You can walk around or just stand there, but the important thing is to allow your naked feet to keep contact with the Earth. Those who practice Earthing believe it will help transfer natural electrical energies that have been lost back to your body.

Take it a step further. Stand there, legs slightly apart. Try to clear your mind of all thoughts about the past and future and just think of the NOW. The cold, crinkly feel of the grass beneath your feet. The slight damp. The grittiness of sand sifting between your toes. The screech of a seagull. The NOW.

Then take a slow deep breath while raising your hands above your head gently. This is not a stretch, just a simple raise your hands on the deep inhale. Then drop your hands and bend at the waist (until comfortable) while you exhale. Do this by bending toward your right leg, then the middle, then the left leg, then the middle, etc. Inhale/Raise, Exhale/Lower. Slowly and without pushing your physical boundaries. Not too long since this isn’t about endurance or exercise, it’s about finding balance.

If you can’t do the arm raise/bend, just do the deep breathing, slow and simple for a minute or two.

I actually do this bending/inhaling exercise during long stretches of writing. Why may you ask? Well first of all, sitting too long is never good.

Second, this Sympathetic Breathing exercise taps into your Autonomic Nervous System which in stressful lives is sometimes stuck in a “fight or flight” response to the detriment of the “rest and digest” portion of the system. Sympathetic breathing exercises help restore the balance to your ANS.

So on this Fun Friday, see if you can do these exercises and if you feel more peaceful, more in the NOW and more energized. If you do, you’ve taken the first step toward find THE LOST energies within you (or maybe join the ranks of the SIN HUNTERS by finding your natural affinity!).

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